The Lunarian professor and his remarkable revelations concerning the Earth, the moon, and Mars : together with an account of the cruise of the Sally Ann

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William Jiarry Jiol^kins

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DUKE UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

The Glenn Negley Collection
of Utopian Literature

THE

Lunarian Professor

AND

His Remarkable Revelations Concerning
the Earth, the Moon and Mars

TOGETHER WITH

An Account of the Cruise of the
Sally Ann

BY

JAMES B. ALEXANDER

AUTHOR OF THE DYNAMIC THEORY. THE SOUL ANO ITS BEARINGS
AND OTHERS

Minneapolis, Minn.

1909

CCPYRISHT 193i3

BY
JAMES B. ALEXAr4DER

R r3 F

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Preface.

I. An Outing 1

An Old Time Adventure 2'

Cruise of the Sally Ann , . 4

The M. & N. W. Railway 10

An Old Stake 14

II. The Professor 17

III. The Moon and Its People 31

IV. Lite on and in the Moon 51

V. Mundane Prognostication 70

The Profile of Time 73

Single Tax 81

VI. Confiscation of Lands 93

Purchase of the Railways 101

Regulation of the Currency 105

Socialism r 107

VIL Woman's Rights 113

The Family 117

Progress in the Church 119

CHAPTER PAGE

VIII. Marriage and Divorce 124

Changes in Map of U. S 128

Russia and England 129

New Political Divisions 133

The Flying Machines 140

Sun Power 152

Over Population 155

IX. Pessimism vs Optimism 158

The Three Grand Nations 164

X. The Third Sex 182

The Decay of the Family 187

XI. The Millenniums 195

The Man of the 100th Millennium .... 199

XII. Universal State and Language 207

XIII. Mars and the Martians 225

XIV. The Canals 238

The Moons 241

XV. The Great Debt 255

Deimos and the Great Cable 260

XVI. Phobos 268

The New Cable 273

Proposed Abduction of i\Iars 277

The Return Voyage 282

Appendix 283

PREFACE.

The reader will please remember that this visit
and revelation of the Lunarian Professor took
place in 1892, seventeen years ago, and some of
the predictions are already due of fulfillment or of
apparent progress in that direction. For example
he gives Minneapolis a population of 1,780,000 in
the year 1925 only sixteen years from the present.
This is worse than ^Yalton. But I do not feel at
liberty to alter the Professional utterances. If I
should begin to do this I would never knovx^ where
to stop. There will doubtless be found other pre-
dictions at variance with our ideas, especially as
to the time in which the fulfillment should take
place. Time is the most uncertain element con-
cerned in prophetic utterances. Give a prophet
time enough and he will successfully predict you
anything you like. "All things come to him v/ho
waits." But I have not the assurance to change any-
thing the Professor has said and I am not prepared
to aver that the truths as they appear to common
mundane mortals are to be preferred to the errors
however manifest of so illustrious a prophet — just
as we accept the dicta of Moses or St. Paul— when
we are entirely sure they do not know what they
are talking about. Our Professor is probably
wrong in regard to the settlement of some of the
questions taken up by him, but to tell the honest

Prpface

tmth, I am too ignorant of the disputed points to
CDUtradict him. li' he says black is Avhile it y:\
safer for me not to talk back. But when it comes
to plain statements of facts, concerning the pres-
ent conditions on the Moon and Mars, in which,
from the abundance of personal knowledge there
remains no license to draw upon his imagination
for his facts, I implicitly trust the Professor. I
never saw a pair of eyes so full of honesty for
their size, or of as large capacity for honesty as
his. Even there, however, some of his statements
are liable to be contradicted. For example, the
theory of the hump or protuberance on the hither
side of the Moon, w^hich had some currency among
our astronomers 40 or 50 years ago appears later
to have been abandoned by at least some of them,
but we should not allow mere theory to counter-
balance the testimony of a competent eye witness.

It may seem strange that the Professor has
made almost no mention of the great Japanese-
Russian war. But as this war settled nothing,
did not even settle what there was to be settled
it may be considered as a mere incident in the
discussion of the real question at issue. This is
only my conjecture of the reason of his silence.

The point of view assumed by a Prophet is of
little consequence compared with what he sees.
Some say, back-sight is more reliable than fore-
sight, and that, considered as a magazine of facts,
history is preferable to the imagination. But
back-sight is history, and like good liquor it re-
quires aging and maturing. The association of
the imagination supplies these effects. History

Preface

must be read with the help of the imagination even
for present use; still more if the inquiry embraces
a glance into the future.

Si quaeris futura, circumspice. If you would
know the future look around you. That which
has been will be. All things have ever been un-
der the domination of evolution and they ever will
b^. Therefore, let the imagination explore its trail,
a ad you are at once a prophet.

CHAPTER I.

An Outing.

Let me see. It was six (6) years since I had an
outing. It seemed a long time and it was long
enough to obscure the conviction I had once arrived
at that the average outing is on the whole more of
a bore than a pleasure and that its principal value
consists in making a fellow satisfied with his ordi-
nary w^ork and glad to get back to it again. I am
tolerably sure that I should have reached the same
opinion even if I had not been the victim of a cer-
tain wretched adventure that happened away back
in my ''courting days". On the occasion referred to
I had taken my best girl for a little rowing and fish-
ing on Brush Lake. ^Ye had not proceeded far when
she *'got a bite", and it nearly drove her wild with
excitement, she stood up in the boat and from her
frantic exertions I judged she had hooked nothing
less than a six pound bass. At last she pulld it out
with a horizontal sweep, and whirling around with
it, the middle of the line struck my head Avith such
force as to send the fish revolving around my neck
five times, and wound up by inserting the hook in
the end of my nose and leaving the fish dangling
and flapping against my face — a ridiculous little
Sninfish not over three inches long. The excited lady
dropped her pole and made such a violent lunge to
secure her prize that she upset the boat and left us
both floundering in the water. Amongst the fifteen

2 The Lvnarian Professor

or twenty spectators on the shore was Aquarius
Jinks, whose father was a fisherman and had brought
him up to think no more of jumping into the water
than a water spaniel. So in he jumped and in a
jiffy he rescued my lady and took her to the nearest
house to get some dry clothes. As for mj^self, I Avas
getting out all right in spite of the embarrassment
of the choking line, my lacerated nose and that;
wretched fish that did not for a moment let up its
frantic struggling and flapping. In addition to this
I had the misfortune to be encumbered by the clum-
sy assistance of a fat German saloon-keeper, who by
the help of the pole, which had now floated near
the shore, drew me up, amid the jeers of the crowd,
that now by the barbarous custom of the times, I
was obliged to ** treat."

This exposure laid me up for six weeks with the
chills, and about the end of that time there was a
Vi^edding — my girl married that Jinks, who took
this perfidious advantage of me. I felt very sore
for a long time in the region of the diaphragm. The
poets usually designate the heart as the particular
organ affected in such cases, but I am persuaded it
is the semi lunar ganglion or solar plexus, probably
the former, from the fact tjiat the victim is apt to
be affected by semi lunacy. But that is a question
of physiology.

Although I never had another such disastrous
experience, yet as I said at first, the average outing
with its accidents, fatigues and discomforts, had on
the whole, left no very favorable impression on me.
Yet I had made up my mind after an interval of six
years to try one more. !?Jy literary work had tired

An Ouiing ?,

me out, and a trip, if it gave no pleasure, would hurt
at least in another place.

August the third, 1892, found me installed in a
cottage, at Cottagewood, at the eastern end of Lake
Minnetonka. My plans were simple. I had a gun,
a boat and fishing tackle, but of these I intended to
make small use. I would rest most of the time, and
lie under the trees and read or loaf as I saw fxt. I
would buy my food of such kind and in such condi-
tion as -to take but little time for its preparation,
for I intended to ''keep bach" for which I was
qualified by more or less previous experience. If
at any time I wanted a square meal, I could take a
row around to the St. Louis hotel, or if the wind
were favorable could sail over to the Lafayette, or
to Excelsior. In short, I meant to rest and take it
easy; do nothing at all to-day, that I could put off
till tom.orrow. I thought this all over the first day
and in accordance with the programme proceeded
to make myself as lazy as possible. I succeeded
well. It requires but little effort to become lazy
when one is in the afternoon of life. During a week
my activity was reduced to a minimum; I saw but
few people, although I had neighbors only a few
rods away concealed by the thick brush, that grew
between us. Once a dog came and after looking
aroung, trotted away. As I sat or lolled on a rustic
bench near the lake, the drowsy monotomous lapping
of the water against the shore kept me for hours on
the border land of sleep, just in that condition in
which one does not know vrhether the motions of
bis brain are dreams or waking thoughts, and in
which he often dreams that he is dreaming. The

4 Tim Lunarian Professor

sound of the distant puffing of a steam yacht or the
merry laughter of a sailing party, that occasionally
ricochetted to the shore rather directed than dis-
turbed the train of these passive activities.

The exhausted body or brain is like a machine
that has run too long without being oiled. It goes
with reluctance and Avith damaging wear and tear.
But when we are thoroughly rested, the motives that
before were unable to move us, now set us going
with the greatest facility.

After the rest and quiet of a week, I began to feel
an impulse to do something or to go somewhere;
and a short debate settled that I would take a trip
by sail and oar to the upper lake. As I did not in-
tend to hurry and might be gone two or three days,
I laid in a stock of provisions accordingly ; with such
cooking apparatus as a coffee pot and frying pan.
Nowhere is a cup of coffee, a slice of ham, crackers
and cheese so relishable as when they satisfy real
thirst and hunger alongside a camp-fire of dry sticks.
Then perhaps I might shoot a duck or hook a crop-
py. At night the sail stretched over a fishing pole
could be formed into a shelter tent, something like
the *'dog tents" Uncle Sam gave us for shelter in
the southern campaigns in the early sixties. In
short I intended to make a regular cruise, and as my
boat vras named Sally Ann, this trip should be
known in history as the cruise of the Sally Ann.

It was a fine morning when, all things ready, T
hoisted sail. The wind was from the southeast and I
started off before it at an exhilarating speed, steer-
ing northwest. In a short time I came abreast of
Big Island, when turning west skirting its north

An Outing 5

shore, I soon got becalmed, the island cutting off
the wind. I was obliged to take the oars, but as
I dallied and loitered along, it w^as a full hour be-
fore I passed the island and caught my breeze again.
I was here steering southwest across the wind and
heading for the narrows, and the canal leading into
the upper lake. Nothing can exceed the beauty of
this lake, no matter at what point the view is taken.
At this place looking northeast over the stern of the
boat, the village of AYayzata partly obscured by
Spirit Island, appeared as if seated in the water
half a mile away, though in reality it is five miles.
On the souJ;heast within a mile, was the Lake Park
hotel and beyond it, half a mile further and across
the entrance to Gideon's Bay, a part of Excelsior
could be seen climbing its picturesque hills, while
along the piers at the bottom of their slopes, were
numerous steam and sailing crafts of various kinds,
besides a fleet of row boats.

As I approached the entrance to the canal, I ob-
served standing on the south bank, a man with a
gun in his hand and dressed in outing costume,
whose figure and attitude reminded me of someone
I had seen before. *'Can it be possible", I said to
myself, 'Hhat that is Allan Ocheltree?" By the
time the boat touched the land, I had made sure
that it was and I sprang ashore to greet him. The
recognition and gratification at meeting were mut-
ual. Our friendship for each other, was always the
closest friendship either of us had. We had been
room-mates and class-mates for four years at college,
and our temperaments and tastes were like comple-
mentary colors, of such harmonious contrast as to

6 Tlic Li'juiriiui Professor

fit each other to a T. In our class we were to each
other like the two end men of a minstrel troup; he
at one end — the head end — and I at the other. It
is singular how^ people, like drift wood on the stream
of time, are at times drifted toward each other and
float along together till some eddy or obstruction
in the current separates them, and hurries them
off in diverging directions, perhaps to meet again
farther down the stream, it may be more than once.
Sometimes a leave-taking under circumstances, that
seem to forebode it to be the last and clothe it in
gloom, and sorrow, is nevertheless not the last by
many; while a cheerful good-by with a light heart-
ed *'ta-ta-old-fellow-see-you-to-morrow," may prove
the beginning of a separation destined to endure for
years — perhaps forever.

The Ocheltree family and my ancestors, were
from the same Scotch-Irish stock, were friends and
neighbors near Belfast and emigrated to Maryland
about two hundred and thirty years ago, settling at
first in Somerset County. A few years later they
moved north into Cecil County, and from there in
1760 a large emigration took place to Mecklenburg
County, North Carolina. Among these emigrants,
were Duncan Ocheltree and my grandfather's Uncle
John. These two were friends and neighbors in the
new settlement and when the revolutionary war
broke out, they both adopted the patriotic cause.
The Mechlenburg declaration of independence was
adopted and signed May 20th or 31st, 1775, by a
convention of which John was secretary, and it was
supported by Duncan. But in 1780, Lord Cornwal-
lis overran the state and captured Charlotte, the

Aji Outing 7

county seat of Mechlenburg, and Duncan, believing
all was lost, hastened to turn Tory and make his
submission to his lordship in order to save his v^ealth
of which he had acquired a goodly share. This was
a bad break and he made it worse by the superero-
gatory zeal of a new convert, in harassing his form-
er friends and piloting the red-coated foragers to
their hay stacks, hen roosts and pig pens, not spar-
ing his old friend John. But the triumph of Corn-
wallis was short; in a few days, he was obliged to
evacuate Charlotte and then Duncan realized that
he had placed himself in a very bad position. As
the British troops were packing their knapsacks
preparatory to decamping from Charlotte between
two days, Duncan determined to throw himself up-
on the generosity of his former friend John, and so
under cover of the darkness he rode out to his farm-
house nine miles in the country. John, who was two
miles oft' in the patriot camp, was sent for. Duncan
surrendered his sword and begged his old friend to
forgive bygones and advise him what to do. John's
sympathy for him at that stage of affairs w^as not
particularly tender as may be supposed, but never-
theless his advice was no doubt the best possible. He
said: "Ocheltree, neither your life nor your proper-
ty is safe in Mechlenburg. The Whigs will take both
Your only safety is in instant flight. I advise you
to reach the Yadkin before daylight." He took the
advice. And so they parted. Four generations later
like two stray straws on a flood, Allan Ocheltree and
I were floated into the same class room at school.
Did it make any difference to me or to him that his
great grandfather, made a bad guess seventy years

8 Tlic Lunarian Professor

before? Not a bit. Every man's ancestral tree is just
the same height as all the rest, his lineage is just as
long and his pedigree must contain practically the
same number of terms whether we reckon back to
Adam or to the Ascidian or to original protoplasm.
Not a member of the long line made himself or the
circumstances surrounding him, and in no two cases
were these precisely the same. The circumstances
that made Confucius or Alexander the Great, or
Julius Caesar, or Columbus, or Washington never
happened to anybody else. It was no fault of the
obscure ancestors or descendants or cousins near
and remote of those worthies that these circumstan-
ces never surrounded them. On the other hand it
cannot be ascribed to the merit of the long line of
those belonging to the dead level of the average, in
size and in quality, that they have been missed by
the untoward circumstances that selected certain
individuals to be in one respect or another conspicu-
ousl}^ below that dead level.

After quitting college, Allan and I occasionally
ran across each other, but the last meeting before
this, occurred in 1876 on Arch Street, Philadelphia.
He was interested in an exhibit in the great exposi-
tion, and being then in a great hurry made an ap-
pointment to meet me next morning. I kept the
engagement, but he was not there. I knew urgent
business had turned up to prevent him, and after
I returned to my liome T received his letter saying
so, and appointing another hour. This letter had
missed me at my hotel and followed me to Illinois.
Here then, we were having our reunion sixteen years
after it was due. But now we could make up for

An Outing 9

lost time for neither had engagements that reqiured
attention for a week at least. It was speedily ar-
ranged that Allan should accompany me and that we
should carry out together the plan I had proposed
for myself. He wrote a note for his boarding house
keeper in Excelsior, saying he would be gone some
days, and gave it to a rowing party going to Excel-
sior, that we shortly after fell in with, and who
cheerfully consented to deliver it. The wind was
still from the southeast, but light and we slowly
sailed westerly and south-westerly passing succes-
sively the state fruit farm and Sampson's place lying
on our left, and Spring Park on our right, nad in a
short time reached Hov/ard's Point that juts a third
of a mile into the lake from the south shore. "We
sailed through the strait between this and pictur-
esque KockAv ell's Island with its attractive summer
hotel, and restful looking surroundings, and turn-
ed southwest towai'd Smithtown Bay.

"We entered Smithtown Bay, but did not go to
the end of it, for the wind was not favorable, and
as we turned west toward the highlands of the up-
per lake I fell into a reminiscent mood. Up to this
time we had occupied ourselves in admiration of the
delightful scenery and in such careless chat as oc-
curred to us, sometimes taking a pull at the oars,
when we entered a locality becalmed by being
screened from the Avind, and sometimes pulling in
the fish line that dragged over the stern of the boat
to see why we never got a bite. But here the mem-
ories that crowded upon me completely absorbed
my attention and I became silent. I had tramped all
over this country in 1877 in the selection of a route

10 The Lunarian Professor

for the Minneapolis and Northwestern Narrow
Gauge Railroad, and so was familiar with the top-
ography, not only of the upper lake, but of the whole
route from Minneapolis to Hutchinson. The first
preliminary line surveyed from Hutchinson to Min-
neapolis in the latter part of November, 1877, passed
along the foot of the high bluff just in front of us,
but the line was not finally located till October, 1879.

"When I explained to my friend how the line
passed south-easterly along the foot of the bluff, at
the edge of the water, except where it dodged be-
hind Hofiin's headland, and then swept around the
head of Smithtown Bay turning north-easterly
toward Excelsior, *'I declare" he exclimed, there
never was so romantic a place to locate an excursion
railroad. So attractive a line ought surely to have
been built. Why wasn 't it ? "

**Weir' I replied, "it was a case of infanticide.'*

**How was that?" He asked.

** You've heard of treacherous midwives and
nurses and murderous baby-farmers being subsidized
to strangle an unwelcome cherub as soon as n is
ushered into the world?"

**Yes, was it a case of that sort?"

**This infant was born healthy and vigorous af-
ter what might be called a rather protracted period
of gestation — some thirty months. It had no less
than twenty-one nurses in the shape of directors,
which number was four times as great as it should
have been and one over.

^^^^en tliore is such a mob of officials, the man-
agement usually devolves on a few of the more ac-
tive and interested. That active minority in this

An Outing 11

case somehow either had from the first, or acquired,
a greater interest in killing this enterprise to please
its rivals than in carrying it out in good faith."

''HoAV did the line run west of here" he asked.

''It passed north-westerly along the foot of the
bluff yonder, on the top of which you see Smith's
stone house, then along the shore just in front of
the "hermitage", and a quarter of a mile beyond
that it turned toward the west and cutting through
the ridge of the peninsula that separates the upper
lake from Halsteds Bay, it skirted the south shore
of that bay, and thence bore in a generally w^esterly
and northwesterly direction, through Minnetrista
township to St. Boniface and thence to Watertown.

Halsteds bay itself is so secluded as to form prac-
tically a separate lake and a beautiful one too."

''Suppose we sail up along this shore" said
Ocheltree, "I am quite interested in the place.

"We turned the nose of Sally Ann toward the
northwest and sailed slowly before the very light
wind. We passed Crane Island lying upon the right
— a sort of lying-in hospital and nursery strictly
sacred to the use of Cranes only, whose occupancy
dates back of the earliest settlement of the country,
and whose title has been secured to them by an act
of the legislature, against the claims of all feather-
less bipeds. Further on, upon the mainland, is the
hermitage and just in front of it the grave of Hal-
sted, who many years ago, lost his life in the lake
so sadly and mysteriously. A short distance beyond
the hermitage, I pointed out the place where the
survey left the shore of the main lake and cut across
to Halsteds bay. We concluded to go on to the

12 Tlte Lunarian Professor

strait leading into that bay and sail around to its
south shore. To reach the strait involved sailing
north a mile and then over half a mile west. As
the wind was still favorable this was soon accom-
plished. But when we reached the strait, we could
no longer use the sail, and were obliged to have re-
course to the oars. Inside the bay there was but lit-
tle wind, and that was against us, as our route now
lay due south. A little over a mile of rowing brought
us to the south shore of the bay. Here the bluff
covered with timber and underbrush slopes down
to the water's edge. Along the foot of this slope, T
pointed out to Ocheltree the position of the narrow
gauge survey. *'It is a wonderfully romantic place
for a pleasure road," said he.

It was now considerably past noon, and our ex-
ercise had begun to tell on us both somewhat and
to suggest a rest and something to eat. According-
ly we pulled the boat up on the beach, and got out
some cooking utensils and provisions. I started off
to collect some dry sticks to make a fire and Allan
took a pail and proceeded along the shore to find a
deep place or a boulder from which he could dip
up clear water for our coffee. AYe happened to go
together for a fev/ rods, when glancing up the slope
a short distance, I discovered a stake sticking in the
ground. I gave an exclamation of surprise and
quickly ran to secure it. It proved to be what I
suspected, one of the stakes of the narrow erauge
surwey. ^'WHiat have you found, old fellow?" Allan
asked. I told him, and it seemed surprising to both
of us that that frail bit of a pine stick should have
survived the storms and accidents of thirteen years.

An Outing 13

We had used for stakes on those surveys common
plastering lath ; one lath four feet long being cut in
the middle made two stakes. This was such a stake,
an inch and a half wide and three-eighths of
an inch thick. It owed its exceptional preserva-
tion to the fact that it was full of pitch and to
its protected position. It had been driven in a slant-
ing position, partly under the body of a large fallen
tree, that lay over the point where the stake should
have been set. The number of the stake had been
written with red chalk, on the side that had hap-
pened to come underneath and so was largely pro-
tected from the rains. But it was now illegible, four
red blotches being all that remained.

A person walking through our Minnesota woods
will often meet with a little mound of earth, along-
side of which he will see a cupshaped depression in
the ground. The depression marks the spot where
at some time in the past there stood a noble tree,
and it indicates that the tree yielding to the force
of an ancient tornado was toppled over, and, pulling
its roots out of the ground drew up with them a
cubic yard, more or less, of earth. Afterwards when
the roots began to decay the earth was dropped in
a heap beside the hole. There was such a mound
and hollow at the west end of the rotten log in ques-
tion, showing that it had been overthrown by the
fierce assault of a western hurricane. The mound
was old, well rounded by the action of the weather
and covered with a mat of grass. I sat down on this
mound in a half reclining position, with the stake in
my hand, and tried again without success to make

1-t The Lunarian Professor

out the number*. A solitary mosquito was singiiif):
about my right ear, and persisted in returning and
constantly evaded my efforts to capture it. Directly
however, its wings became still, and unaccountable
stupor appeared to steal over me, my head drooped
over toward the left till it touched the grass and for
a mom.ent I was unconscious. But it was only for
a moment for a new consciousness almost immediate-
ly supervened. It was a consciousness composed
chiefly of subjective sensations, although I hold that
even subjec^tive sensations, very often in an unper-
ceived manner, receive their direction and stimula-
tion to activity from objects around us. But that is
a question of psychology. At all events the sensa-
tions, I am about to relate were the most remark-
able I ever experienced, and at the time were not
accompanied by the least intimation, that they were
not puitly objective.

CHAPTER II.

The Professor.

First there was a loud singing noise in my right
ear, pitched in a high key. Presently this pitch be-
came lower and the sound resembled the rattle of

*After reacliing liome and looking over tlie notes of
tlie survey, I found the number of the stake to bo be-
tween 1175 and 1185, and it was set on Saturday af-
ternoon, October 25, 1879.

The Professor 15

rolling car wheels on a track, and they seemed to
be approaching. I suddenly realized that they were
advancing to the place where I lay, and greatly
startled, I sprang to my feet. I was non too quick,
for a train of four cars rolled rapidly over the very
spot where I had lain. I saw they were filled with
gay well dressed people evidentlj^ on a pleasure ex-
cursion. As I gazed after them toward the west
along the gleaming rails, I remembered there was
no locomotive with the train. Of course not, thought
I, the road is run by electricity. But there was no
overhead wire and no trolley. O, I see, these cars
are propelled by storage batteries that they carry
with them. I felt no surprise at this, nor at the fact
tht the road had been built after all, for it all
seemed to be a matter of course. Turning toward
the east where the line penetrated the ridge that lies
between the bay and the lake, I saw on the edge of
the cut the tall white mile post so illuminated by the
direct sunshine that the number 24 in large black
figures could be made out, although the distance vras
a third of a mile or more. While I was still gazing in
that direction I suddenly became aware of a strange
looking object coming through the cut and around
the curve. It was a four wheeled vehicle something
like a hand car, but it was not being ''pumped" nor
were there any handles for propelling it in that way.
The idea suddenly came to me that this car like
the first I had seen, was propelled by a storage bat-
tery concealed somewhere about its anatomy. But
the interest created by the car was quickly eclipsed
by that inspired by its occupant; and a more re-
markable creature I never read about or dreamed

lo The Lunarian Professor

about. He sat bolt upright on the seat at the rear
end of the car and while he was at a distance, I
took him for a rather stiff dignified and odd speci-
men of a man. But as he approached and I got a
better opportunity for observing details, I directly
came to doubt if he could be a man at all. When
I first saw him, I observed what seemed to be a
large fan-like appendage projecting from his back,
which I then took to be some peculiar garment
streaming out behind. But as he approached, this
appendage separated into two, and spreading out
to the right and left acted like brakes against the
wind and rapidly checked the speed of the car, re-
minding me of the action of the wings of a bird,
when it alights. Jn short to my great astonishment
it turned out they were wrings. I instinctively step-
ped back two or three paces to allow this strange
apparition to pass, but to my surprise the car stop-
ped directly opposite to me and its occupant with
a slight flutter of the aforesaid wings, hopped light-
ly out of it and stood beside the track so near to
me, that I could have touched him. For a moment
or two he busied himself with some arrangement
about his car, the nature of which I did not observe,
as my attention was absorbed chiefly by himself.

In the description, that I shall now" give of him,
will be included a number of details that I did not
observe at first, but which showed themselves dur-
ing the progress of our interview\ The large wings
mentioned above were at least six feet in radius,
and each was nearly a semicircle. They could be
folded like a fan and when in that position they lay
down along his back from his shoulders to his heels

The Professor 17

and when fully extended reached from his heels to
a point nearly five feet above his head. They were
of a soft semitransparent, but thick and tough mem-
branous material, full of veins and nerves and sup-
ported by stiff elastic ribs, radiating from their ar-
ticulation at the shoulder to the circumference.

Besides these wings, he had two other pairs simi-
lar in texture, but much smaller. One pair v/as at-
tached just in front of the principal pair and or-
dinarily they were directed upward beside his head
and reaching above it. But he could also extend
them laterally, so as *to cover his face, as well as the
back of his head and did so repeatedly while he was
with me, apparently to shield himself from the raj^s
of the sun. The other two were attached just below
the main wings and extended downwards alongside
of the body to the feet. But they too were extensi-
ble laterally and could be made to cover the entire
lower half of the body. In short, these four minor
wings were equivalent to clothes, and the numerous
nerves by which they were traversed, indicated that
they were also delicate organs of the sensations of
heat and touch.

In addition to these wings, there were six other
limbs, two of which were legs and two w^ere arms,
in much the same position in which they occur in
man. The third pair of limbs were attached to the
thorax between the arms and legs, and were or-
dinarily folded across the thorax. I came to the
conclusion these limbs could be used either as hands
or feet as occasion required, but while he was with
me he made little other use of them than to occa-
sionally give me a sly poke with one of them — usual-

18 The Liniarian Professor

ly the right — in the side — usually the left side — about
the position of the second rib from the bottom. As
these gestures always came about in connection with
some humorous or ludicrous idea, it occurred to me
in a whimsical way to call these limbs his jokers.
His head was immense, possessing, I should saj%
double the capacity of the largest human head. The
top part was globular, and the lower part, which
might be called the face, was long and wedge shap-
ed, tapering down to the jaws. The jaws were strong
and well set with teeth and worked laterally instead
of vertically as with us, and the slit forming the
mouth was vertical and in the middle. There was
no chin. The eyes were placed just above the mouth
and at the base of the upper dome shaped portion of
the head. They were of enormous size fully two
inches in diameter, half globular and set far apart,
forming as it were the corners of the face. They
were not movable as ours are, because every part
of the surface of the eye was equally good to see
with; and their position enabled their owner to see
three-fourths of the horizon without turning his
head. The face had not one particle of expression
or mobility to it, but this was compensated a hun-
dred times by the expression of the eyes. Their
usual expression, when at rest, was one of supreme
kindliness and benevolence with a slight element of
humor. But when the mind was in activity, the eyes
beamed with good natured wit, were suffused with
tender sentiment or flashed with intellectual brillian-
cy to a degree I would never have imagined possi-
ble. Under each of the wings there was an opening
leading into the body, those of the middle wings

Tlie Professor 19

being nearly three-fourths of an inch in diameter,
and the others very much smaller. All were pro-
tected by movable lips. I soon discovered that these
were for the purpose of breathing, the air being
constantly inhaled and exhaled through them. I
have no doubt the lining membrance of these breath-
ing tubes was sensitive to odors and was therefore
an organ of smell. As to ears, there was one plain-
ly to be seen on the upper part of each arm, and
I observed him move his arm in the proper direc-
tions to catch the sound. In the long conversation
I had with him I cannot say that I heard any artic-
ulate voice. There was a slight humming noise, ris-
ing and falling in very agreeable musical cadences,
and these appeared to accompany the enunciation of
his ideas and thoughts when he addressed me. When
I spoke to him, I used articulate words in plain Eng-
lish and he appeared to hear in the ordinary way.
But his thoughts came to me like waves or pulsations
and appeared to be injected bodily into my brain
without any distinct sensation of hearing them. In
short I directly came to perceive that it was a case of
the telepathic transfer of ideas, experiments in which
are known to most people, but which was in this
case vastly more complete and perfect than I had
ever imagined possible. In the report of the conver-
sation between us that I give herein it is to be un-
derstood that I do not quote his language, but give
the impression of his thoughts upon me in my own
language, and the best I have been able to do, I am
sensible, forms a very inadequate dress in which to
set off the beauty of his sentiment or the strength
of his reason.

20 The Lunarian Professor

'VMien my visitor had finished whatever arrange-
ment he was making with his car, he turned partly
around and I saw he had in his hand a small spool
of copper wire, two strands from which connected
with the car. Next he performed some slight manip-
ulation with his coil of wire, the nature of which I
could not make out, but which produced the surpris-
ing result, that the car slowly rose from the track
continuing upward till stopped by the wire, then
my visitor drew^ it gently to one side and pushing
a stout iron pin into the ground, he attached the
spool and coil to it and left it there, picketed out,
precisely as a cow-boy pickets his mule, except that
the car floated in the air gently pulling on its tether.
I had for some moments been casting about in my
mind for some appropriate manner in which to ad-
dress my singular visitor. The more I observed his
actions, the higher my opinion rose of his character,
abilities and position in the scale of existence. Koyal
and aristocratic titles, such as Your Majesty, My
Lord etc., are very awkward in the mouth of an
American and seemed by no means sure to be aprop-
riate in this case. Then I thought of our American
titles. General, Colonel, Major, Judge, Squire, Gov-
ernor, none of which of course would do. But the
surprise and curiosity excited by this performance
of picketing the car in the air would in another
minute have overcome the tension of diffidence and
doubt and I should have addressed him as something,
even if no better title than plain Mister occurred to
me.

But he saved me this necessity, by opening the

The Professor 21

conversation himself. He seemed to know what I
had been thinking of.

*'A title of address", said he, ''should be signifi-
cant of facts. It is ridiculous to call a man Hon-
orable, because you have sent him to the legislature,
or to congress, or another person 'Majesty' whose
understanding is below mediocrity. You may call
me, 'Sir,' which title as you know means simply an
older person and I will call you by some title, that
means young — if it means quite young, it will still
be very appropriate, eh?"

This was accompanied, by a queer, but decidedly
jolly and good natured expression of the eyes and a
gentle poke with his right middle hand described
above.

"Then," said I, "you think you are the older.
The fact is, I am so well preserved, that almost
everyone rates me ten or fifteen years younger than
I am, and perhaps you do."

"I am nineteen," he said.

"Why," I exclaimed, "I am more than three
times that old."

"Nevertheless, I am very much older than you,"
he replied.

"You talk in riddles," said I, **I don't under-
stand you."

"Well, I v/ill explain. You understand, that
every race is made by its environment and the same
is true of each individual of the race."

"Certainly, that is my pet theory."

"Well, the environment of the race is in reality,
the environment of every individual in it, for every
individual inherits the impress made upon the race

22 The Lunarian Professor

during all past ages. For this reason a human in-
fant just born is a being of far greater experience
than a mature elephant; the experience of the race
is his and it is expressed in the structure of his
brain and body. In like manner an individual of
our race has the long life of his race behind liim and
is older at birth than a human being is at 80, becaus»i
our race has a vastly longer history and experience
than yours."

*'Your idea is ingenious, but yet it must be ad-
mitted that a mature elephant knows more than a
new born human infant."

''That depends on what you mean by knowl-
edge," he replied. *'The most knowing person has
no knowledge when he is asleep, but he possesses
the potentiality of getting it when he wakes up, and
when he is awake, his knowledge extends only to
the things about which his brain is active for the
moment, while as to other things, the most that can
be said is that, he may possess the potentiality of
knowing them when the activity of his brain is di-
rected to them, by appropriate stimulations. In
like manner the potentiality of all the knowledge
belonging to his race, slumbers in the new born in-
fant; and as he gradually wakes up in the process
of his growth and development, this knowledge, up-
on proper stimulation of the brain, flashes into view.
Therefore everything depends upon the race to
which one belongs. Our race had already reached
a high degree of cultivation before your's was dis-
tinguishable from four footed beasts."

My disposition to generalize, unwittingly influ-
enced no doubt by my early Sunday School educa-

The Professor 23

tion, here led me to make an observation, that a
moment later I perceived to be crude and ill consid-
ered. It was to the effect that this great age to which
his race had attained, had made their superior men-
tal development possible and had given the time
necessary for their physical evolution through and
from the human form.

His answer to this was a loud and prolonged,
ha ha ha ! That is to say, I heard nothing quite like
that, but was impressed by a sensation that his men-
tal state exhibited in human expression would be
laughter loud and long.

Said he; *'the conceit of the human race is the
laughing stock of all our people, but you are a very
young race and you will know a great deal more
when you get older. Individuals of our race and
kindred races have visited the earth, and allowed
themselves to be seen. And descriptions of them
have been attempted by some of your ancient seers. *

The human race having become dominant on
earth, they have entirely overrated their importance
and not only fancy that they w^ill some day own the
rest of the solar system, but imagine that they will
sprout wings and develope into beings like us; but
any of you that have studied natural history and
your new theories of evolution, ought to know that
beings having twelve limbs could never be evolved
from a race having but four. The only possible
evolution by which your race could ever possess
wings, would be the conversion through use and
habit of your arms into wings, which has actually
occurred in the case of your bats and birds.

The families on earth that are related to and

24 The Lunarian Professor

resemble us are the insect tribes. In fact we trace
our origin back to an ancestry, which according to
many of our best scientists is exactly parallel with
that of your insects, and they alone of mundane in-
habitants could ever expect to evolve a posterity
at all like us, and they never will, for the conditions
on earth will forever keep them in a subordinate
position to the present dominant race."

During this speech, notwithstanding its intense
interest to me I was becoming impatient and ner-
vous with the apprehension that he might leave me
without telling me where he was from and how he
made that car of his disregard the law of gravita-
tion. In the solution of this last riddle especially I
could readily see a utilitarian outcome of overwhelm-
ing importance. I am afraid that my questions were
put with an undignified eagerness and precipitancy,
v/hich no doubt he observed, for he first proceeded
to say that he had much information to communi-
cate to me and was glad to see me desirous of re-
ceiving it.

"You understand the law of the attraction of
gravitation" — I nodded assent — *'but you know
nothing of the repulsion of gravitation." Indeed I
did not. I had never heard of such a thing.

He continued: *'A11 polar attractions are ac-
companied by repulsions. This you see in magnet-
ism and in electricity, and it is equally true in grav-
itation. The force with which bodies fall toward
each other consists merely of the difference between
the attractive and the repulsive force. Ordinarily
the attractive force takes hold of the near ends of
the molecules of ether contained in solid or fluid

The Professor 25

bodies, and the repulsive force affects only the fur-
ther ends of the same molecules, so that by reason
of the difference in the distances over which these
two forces operate the attractive force always over-
powers repulsion. But we have discovered a way
by which the action of these forces is reversed, so
that the w^ork of repulsion is performed on the near
end of the molecules and attraction on the further
end, and then attraction being the weaker of the
two, the body, as a whole, is repelled. We imitate
in fact the action that takes place when the attrac-
tion between two electrified bodies turns to repul-
sion. Repulsion also takes place between the sun
and the tails of comets. The comet's tail is attract-
ed toward the nucleus of the comet and at the same
time repelled from the sun. We have not been able
to make bodies discriminating like that in their at-
tractions.

'^But," said I, ''it must take as much power to
make this change as the changed condition yields
after it is made and I cannot see where you sjet tlse
pov/er; you cannot make something out of nothing.''

''Very true," said he, ''but the resistance to the
change is in reality— very small, and it is accom-
plished, even by neuro-magnetism in a wonder-
fully simple manner. The proportion of force re-
quired to do it is no greater than that required to
move the slide valve in the steam chest of one of
your steam engines, by which the enormous force
of the steam is alternately shifted to first one end
and then the other of the cylinder. We can generate
the force required for this, in our own tissues and
it accumulates in electric organs possessed by us

26 The Lunarian Professor

similar to those of your electric eels. I will show
you. ' '

AYith that he reached out and touched me on the
mouth. There w^as a flash and a sensation as if a
coal of fire had touched me, and a smart shock pass-
ed through my limbs. I was easily enough con-
vinced that he possessed large electric storage capac-
ity, and he told me he could give me a shock 100
times as strong as the one I had received. I was
willing to take his word for that. But I was by no
means satisfied v/ith his explanation of the reversal
of the forces in gravitation. It seemed to me to
involve a mechanical fallacy and 1 half suspected
he purposely avoided giving me the true explana-
tion. Although I have since given the subject con-
siderable thought I have not been able to clear it
up. Theorize as I might however, there was the fact
that gravitation vras somehow suspended, in the case
of the car.

I said to him earnestly, that I would give any-
thing I possessed to be able to understand and
apply these principles as he did.

*'I have no doubt at all of that", said he, *'but
it is our secret, and I could commit no more heinous
act of treason against my people or our planet, than
by divulging it.

*'For goodness sake," I exclaimed, *'tell me what
planet you inhabit, and what harm could result from
giving this invaluable information."

*'My home is the moon," he said quitely, ''and
I have ever since vrondered how I came to receive
the announcemoiit without the slightest degree of

The Professor 27

surprise as if it were an every day occurence to
meet people from the moon.

"The discovery you wish me to reveal to you, was
made by our ancestors over a million years ago,"
he went on, *'the population of the moon was then
as great as the planet would support in comfort,
and its regulation and maintenance had been reduc-
ed to a strictly scientific basis. It was seen at once
and soon experimentally proved that our people
could by the use of this principle easily visit the
earth, and if the discovery should be communicated
to the earth people, there would be nothing to pre-
vent flooding the moon with an undesirable horde
of adventurers, w^ho v/ould like a swarm of seventeen
year locusts proceed to lay claim to everything in
sight and seriously disturb the lunar peace and pros-
perity. And so the communication of this secret was
forbidden on pain of the terrible punishment of pro-
jection."

My inquiring look showed xhat I did not under-
stand this, and he continued.

''Projection is the extreme penalty of our laws.
In it the criminal is locked up in a spherical shell
of cast iron having two small glass windows and
famished with compressed air in alumina flasks,
and food sufficient to last from a few days to two
years according to the severity of the sentence, the
larger amount of food going with the more severe
sentence. After he is fastened in, the repulsion of
gravitation is turned on and the ball instantly pro-
jects iteslf into space bounding ofiP at a terrific speed.
Yc.'t no matter v/hat direction it takes it can never
come into collision with any body whether planet or

28 The Lunarian Professor

sun, but whenever it approches one it is instantly
repelled, and thus it continues to be hurled from
one to another forever, and the longer the criminal
lives to perceive and reflect that he is an outcast
from all worlds, the greater his punishment is sup-
posed to be. Is it a theory of some of our scientists
that a projected person continues to be repelled from
sun to sun till at last he reaches the edge of crea-
tion and is hurled completely out of the universe.
However this may be, the friends of a projected per-
son never know where he is."

**I hope,*' said I, ** that you are not often under
the necessity of inflicting such a terrible punishment
as that.'*

*'No one has been projected for over forty years,
but 500,000 years ago the punishment was frequent-
ly resorted to."

*'In traversing the space between the earth and
the moon, I suppose you will first move by repulsion
from the earth?"

*'Yes, I use repulsion for the first part of the
journey. This gives me a rapid send off from the
earth. My speed constantly increasing till I reach
the distance of 216,000 miles from the earth, at this
point the repulsion of the moon — which by the way
is exerted against me from the time I leave the earth
— is just equal to that of the earth, but the momen-
tum acquired by that time carries me almost home,
the moon's repulsions constantly diminishing the
speed and at last bringing me to a stand still or
sheering me off to one side. It is then necessary to
turn on attraction, which causes me to approach

The Professor 29

the moon with a speed which is easily checked and
regulated by using repulsion when necessary."

''The terrific speed with which you travel or
fall, as we might say, from one planet to another,
I should think would overpov/er you— take your
breath away."

''We have to guard against this, while we tra-
verse the atmosphere, both at this and at the other
end of the journey, but once clear of the atmosphere
we fall through empty space without the slightest
sensation of motion and realize that we are going
only by the rapid decrease in the apparent size of
the globe we are leaving and increase of the one we
approach. It is impossible to conceive a more thrill-
ing experience than is conveyed by the perception
of the growth in a few hours of your earth from a
ball six feet in diameter as it appears to us at the
start, to the vast and illimitable expanse of variegat-
ed beauty it gets to be before we reach it.

On the journey, it is necessary to guard against
the blistering heat of the sun's rays upon the side on
which they fall, and the intense cold which we en-
counter on the shady side; and we must look out
that neither ourselves nor any of the loose articles
we carry in the car such as our flasks of compressed
air, our food etc. are repelled from the car and al-
lowed to fall to earth or moon by their ordinary
gravity, for the change to repulsion only applies to
the iron part of the car and not other things. It
cannot be applied to wood or to animal or vegetable
tissue etc. We guard against all these contingencies
by having a stout cover over our ear, supported by
steel hoops, when we are on an intermundane trip.

30 Tlie Lunarian Professor

When we travel on the ground, this is folded up and
not used."

Then I suppose the wheels of your car come into
use when you travel on the ground, for I can see
no use for them in your "intermundane" journeys."

' ' That is true. This car I have with me is my or-
dinary carriage at home. It is a railroad car as you
see by the flanges on the w^heels. Railroads with
us are public free highways, built and maintained
by the state. They have from four to twelve tracks.
Every person who is qualified by his education and
training to manage a car is furnished with one by
the state. The propelling power is nothing but
gravity either in attraction or repulsion, the former
being used on down grades and the latter on up
grades, the car having rollers that hook under a
flange at the top of the rail to prevent the car from
rising bodily from the track.

The surface of our planet is very rough, but still
the grading for roads is light, as it is possible to
ascend grades of 100 per cent or even steeper. Level
grades on our roads are always avoided, and in dis-
tricts where this cannot be done, we use electric
roads.

The cars are so constructed that different parts
are electrically insulated from each other, by which
means a part of the car can be placed under the in-
fluence of attraction and the rest under that of re-
pulsion. This is done on down grades. The weight
of the load and of part of the car pulling down and
the weight of the rest of the car holding back. It
is always arranged to have the car heavier than its
load, and the driver can regulate the force used by

The Professor 31

balancing one against the other, so that a car of
many tons shall press on the rails with the weight of
only a very few pounds. Thus the wear and tear
on road beds and rails is almost nothing and the
roads are practically everlasting.

CHAPTER III.
The Moon and Its People.

**I am amazed/' said I, *'to learn that the moon
is inhabited and by a race apparently m-ore advanced
than our ov/n. Our astronomers have assured us
that the moon is a desolate played out barren world
without air or water; totally unfit for inhabitants."

''The astronomers could only report what they
could see, and the side of the moon visible from the
earth is as they describe it, but they have never seen
the further side and never will, for that side is al-
ways turned from the earth. But the population of
the moon is not far from half that of the earth and
the people live in greater comfort. But there is no
population living on the surface on the hemisphere
facing the earth — I see this puzzles you," he said.

It certainly did. ' ' Do you mean that the Lunari-
ans live under ground ? " I inquired.

"I will explain. The moon is a much lighter
body than the earth bulk for bulk, a cubic yard of
it containing on an average only six tenths as much
matter as an avera2:e yard of earth. The reason of

o2 Tlie Lunarian Professor

this is that a very large part of the moon's bulk is
made up of interstices, caves and openings. Now
it is a remarkable fact that the hemisphere of the
moon facing the earth is much lighter than the
further one, so much so that the center of gravity
is 33 miles further from this side of the moon than
from the further side. This fact has been suspected
by some of your astronomers. The consequence of
it is that the sea has all gone to the further hemi-
sphere, and the near hemisphere is in the highest
place, about 33 miles above the level of the sea. It
is much as if a concave cap, the material of which
is 33 miles thick at the center and tapers to zero all
round the rim, were fitted on to a sphere. This rim
is at the edge of the moon, as seen from the earth.
Our atmosphere like yours, gets lighter as we as-
cend and is too thin to support life at a height of
five miles, so that the great plateaus of our hither
hemisphere are over 20 miles higher than any ap-
preciable atmosphere. So you can see the impossi-
bility of life on the hither surface of the moon if
you reflect a moment what the conditions would be
on a mundane plateau 33 miles above the sea level.
Your highest mountains are only between five and
six miles high, and you know the impossibility of
either vegetable or animal life at even that altitude.
On the earth such elevations are regions of per-
petual snow, and the hither surface of the moon
would be such a region if it possessed water and an
atmosphere. But while the surface on this side is
uninhabitable, there are immense tracts of under-
ground space, that have been converted into habit-
able territorv. This underground country lies so

The Moon and Its People 33

far below the surface that it is practically near the
sea level throughout. It is approached at all parts
of the rim of the cap just described, and there are
many thousands of tunnels entering it all round this
rim, especially in the equatorial parts of the moon.
A great amount of labor has been expended, not only
on these entrances, but on the internal cavities to
which they lead; but compared with the work per-
formed for us by nature, our own labor is but an
insignificant item — hardly so much as the labor of
your race in fitting up the earth for your residence.
The entrances are all volcanic craters, and the vast
cavities to which they lead, were excavated long
ages ago by volcanic action. The material blown
out of the volcanoes, mostly fell upon the hither side
of the moon increasing the bulk of the cap; most
of the volcanoes being on this side. But even the
material thrown from the lateral regions was drawn
this way by the attraction of the earth and after
describing a longer or shorter curve, fell on the
hither side of the moon.

Nearly all the moon's volcanoes are on the hither
portion, the volcanic region occupying about two-
thirds of the whole surface of the moon. The weight
of bodies on the hither side is appreciably less than
on the further side. These facts are supposed to be
due to the earth's attraction neutralizing that of the
moon and having resulted in building up the vast
protuberance or table land (of light and porous ma-
terial) on this side, the latter is often called, by us
the ''Mundane Hump',, in recognition of the earth's
instrumentality in its formation. The interior con-
tinent is often spoken of as the "Pocket" by the

34 The Lunarian Professor

people on the further side; or sometimes as the
"Chest", and the "Hump" is called its Lid.

The further side of the moon is called the Ex-
terior Continent, but often humorously designated
by the people of the ''Pocket", as the Out-door Con-
tinent/'

**But," said I, *'what a strange life it must be
in those underground cavities. I suppose of course
you can have nothing better than artificial light
there?"

''True," he said, ''our light is mostly artificial,
but it is made as bright as we can bear it. It is elec-
tric light, but it is regulated to be quite equal to
sun light and it never goes out. There is no night
in the underground country, as there is outside."

"This is wonderful! — ^But where do you get the
power to furnish this light? Have you got water-
falls and coal beds down there?"

"We have many waterfalls, but do not utilize
them to any great extent for their power and we
have a considerable amount of coal, which however
we do not use for fuel, but reserve for food purposes,
to be drawn upon as may be required."

"Is stone coal what you have to eat then?" I
here broke in. "With exasperating deliberation, he
gave me an admonitory poke with his right joker.

"One thing at a time — one thing at a time. Yon
wanted to know where we get power to turn into
electric lighting. It is the power of gravity. If
one of your perpetual motion cranks understood
the secret of the use of the repulsion of gravitation,
he could contrive a perpetual motion in an hour and
a half. "We have many forms of such machines that

The Moon and Its People t^

have been in use for ages. One of these is the pen-
dulum machine. This consists of a pendulum weigh-
ing from a few pounds to many tons and so contriv-
ed that when it reaches the loAvest part of its swing
it automatically turns on the repulsion of gravita-
tion, which reinforces its momentum on the ascend-
ing part of its arc, enough to compensate for the
work done by it and the friction of the machine.
Another machine is the oscillating balance. This
consists of weights at each end of a beam balanced
in the middle and so governed by an automatic
shunting apparatus, that one of the weights is un-
der the influence of attraction while the other is un-
der that of repulsion. When the former has reach-
ed the bottom of its oscillation and the latter the top,
the force is reversed in each and so the motion is
perpetual.

Another machine is the Automatic hammer, which
is a literal hammer though it may weigh many tons.
The end of its handle is confined by a stationary
wrist, while the hammer rises and falls under the
effect of repulsion and attraction automatically al-
ternated by shunting apparatus. Then we have the
vertical parabolic railway; which consists of two
steep inclined tracks, meeting each other at the
foot. A car runs alternately down one and up the
other on much the same principle as the pendulum
machine. There are numerous other machines, but
they all operate on the same principle, just as you
have many forms of water wheels, all operated by
the weight of water. So you see our power costs
us nothing at all after the machine is built, except
for the oil for its lubrication. As these machines

36 The Lunarian Professor

have been known and used by us for many thousands
of years, you may readily perceive what changes
we have been able to make in all those conditions
of our planet, that relate to our comfort and general
purposes. You may add to this, that any exertion
we make relating to the movement of heavy bodies,
is ten times as effectual as the same exertion made
on earth. "Water and air with us are only one-sixth
as heavy as on earth, and the average soil and rocks
one-tenth as heavy; so that our laborers handle
wheelbarrows holding a cubic yard of material as
easily as yours do their little barrows containing
two or three cubic feet.''

Here I interposed again. **You speak of your
atmosphere being only one-sixth as heavy as ours.
That agrees w^ith what our astronomers have told
us, and they have pointed out that even if there is
such an atmosphere, on the moon, animal life like
ours is not possible there, because the air is too
thin.''

''Your astronomers do not consider that animal
life and activity depend, not on the amount of air
the animal is surrounded by, but by the amount of
it he can use. The fishes in your waters have less
air to the cubic foot of space than we have, yet are
active, but if you take them out of the water and
surround them with ten times as much air as they
had, they nevertheless die, because they have not
lungs suitable for breathing it. But furthermore it
is not the amount of air that is of such consequence
to animal life, but the amount of oxygen. Your air
consists of about 21 parts of oxygen to 79 of nitro-
gen, and mixed with it is a considerable amount of

The Moon and Its People 37

carbonic acid and other impurities. In our air
the proportions of nitrogen and oxygen are about
reversed, and there is a far less amount of carbonic
acid gas. There is also a much greater quantity of
ozone, which as you know, is a concentrated and
more active form of oxygen. And so on the whole,
when I take a breath of air here on your earth, I
get but a slightly greater quantity of oxygen than
at home."

*'Then you are not greatly inconvenienced in be-
ing transferred from lunar conditions to those of
earth?"

*'AVell, not with respect to breathing, but when
we are at the surface of the earth we are greatly
oppressed by the weight of your atmosphere and by
our own increased weight as well. Ten or fifteen
minutes is as long as we can stand it at one time.
But we can get speedy relief by ascending ten thou-
sand miles or so, and when we have come to earth
to make extended studies of things here, we are com.-
pelled to interrupt them by frequently going up and
remaining awhile.

I had become not only intensely interested in the
extraordinary information communicated by my vis-
itor, but greatly fascinated by his person and pres-
ence ; and his last speech made me painfully appre-
hensive that I was about to lose his company, and so
I expressed the wish that if he felt obliged to go
up stairs to recover himself, he would return and
continue the interview as soon as possible. He re-
plied that he would be compelled to return home as
soon as he left me, but added that he would remain
with me for a considerable time longer, observing

38 The Litnarian Professor

that he felt exceedingly §lad to impart information
to so willing a listener. I could not at the time
reconcile his intention of remaining a considerable
time longer with what he said about not being able
to remain at the earth's surface more than ten or fif-
teen minutes at a time, as I thought he had already
considerably exceeded that. But not wishing to lose
time by having him reconcile his observations, I
hastened to get back to the thread of his discourse,
by asking what sort of food the lunarians live on.

''The Lunarians are exclusively vegetarians and
live chiefly on grains and grasses and leguminous
plants in some degree resembling those on earth, but
of an entirely different habit, for they all or nearly
all, mature in the period of one-half of a lunar month
or about fourteen of your days. But this will not
seem so surprising, when you reflect that we have
continuous sunshine without night during the whole
time. Of course this observation applies only to the
exterior continent on the further half of the moon.
Our plants were all developed on that side and be-
came adapted to the seasons there, and they general-
ly retain their habits of growth since their introduc-
tion to the interior continent, or Pocket. But in
many cases, by changing the conditions of nourish-
ment, new varieties have been developed, having a
longer or shorter period of growth. ]\Iuch more than
half of our food products are produced under ex-
tremely artificial conditions. The artificial heat Ave
require for cooking, for warmth etc., is produced by
means of electricity and so is our artificial light ;
moreover, we do not allow any organic matter, such
as dead bodies, dead trees or vegetables or any sort

The Moon and Its People 39

of refuse or excrete matters, to rot either in the open
air or in the ground, and the manuring of the soil
is strictly forbidden. Our air therefore is very poor
in carbonic acid as, (or carbonic dioxide), which
constitutes almost the sole food required for the
growth of plants. In fact about all that the air gets
of this gas is that thrown off from our lungs in
breathing. To use this up, we cultivate various air
plants that grow with little or no roots and yet cover
the ground with an agreeable carpet. Some of these
are eatable. All organic matters, when they become
refuse, are carefully collected in great air tight and
powerful tanks, in which they are heated under an
enormous pressure until their original organization
entirely disappears. The dimensions of the tanks are
reduced during this process by the gradual forcing
in of the walls, which are made movable for that pur-
pose, and when the contained material has becom.c
reduced to about the consistency and constitution of
your ordinary lignite or soft coal, it is forced
through a number of cylindrical holes on one side
of the tank, by which it is moulded into round sticks
of coal, and is then ready to be used over again. The
whole process is an imitation of that by which min-
eral coal is produced in nature, both on the earth
and the moon, except that it is accomplished arti-
ficially with us in about 50 hours, while nature takes
thousands of years for it. The fluids and nitrogen-
ous and other volatile substances pressed out, are
secured and saved by proper absorbents. These to-
gether with the coal are used by our food growers in
producing their plants.

The planting is all done in vats or chambers with

40 The Lunarian Professor

air tight roofs. The bottom of a vat is covered with
a few inches of soil specially prepared and appro-
priate for the plant intended to be sown. After the
seeds germinate the vat is covered and the inside is
brightly illuminated with electricity and filled with
carbonic dioxide, obtained by burning a proper
quantity of coal in a retort, which is also accem-
plished by electricity. All the conditions necessary
for rapid growth are supplied to the plants and they
are forced forward to maturity without any pause or
delay, such as takes place in the growth of plants
on earth, through the intervention of cloudy or
stormy weather, too much or too little moisture, too
much or too little heat, the darkness of night etc.

The same method of cultivation prevails to a
great extent on the exterior continent, although as
the sun shines on that continent about 350 hours at
a time, which constitutes the length of the day there,
the vats are often merely covered by air tight glass
roofs and the sun is the growing power instead of
electricity."

*'I understand now," said I, "what you meant
by saying you reserved your mineral coal for food
purposes. You draw on it only when the steady sup-
ply of artificial coal fails?"

''That is correct."

*'But if you rigorously save every particle of your
organic matters to be reconverted into food, I don't
see why it should ever fail unless your population
increases. But you have not informed me on that
subject."

"The control of the reproduction of the popula-
tion has been in the hands of the state from the re-

The Moon and Its People 41

motest antiquity, ' ' said he ; ' ' and no increase in the
total number has ever been permitted unless there
had already been an increase in the means of sup-
porting the population by the discovery of improved
methods or new appliances. The tendency and pol-
icy has alwa3^s been to allow the population to keep
up near the limits of the means of support, and oc-
casionally it has crowded a little too close. Then
there are occasional losses by fire and a more or less
steady unavoidable waste of food materials in their
ordinary handling. Some are lost in the sea. But
as long as there is a store of mineral coal to draw
upon, no such losses can entail more than a tempo-
rary inconvenience. One thing that has a consider-
able effect on the food supply, is the change in fash-
ions, that often takes place in a manner that the
authorities cannot f orsee or provide for. ' '

''Then fashion holds sway in the moon as well
as the earth ! "Well, I am surprised ! But as your
clothes appear to grow on you I don't see how fash-
ion can interfere very much, or how it could affect
the question of food."

''Fashion with us has nothing to do with dress.
As you say, nature has provided us with a dress at
once suitable and beautiful. AVhatever faults wo
have, personal vanity is not among them. Our at-
tention is but little absorbed in ourselves, but is con-
stantly directed to others and to the service of the
community. If anyone should betake himself to
personal frills and ornaments, I fancy he Avould be
told he was getting like the Earthlings, and, he
would be advised to go up and live on the Hump,
so he could be near the people he was trying to ape.

42 The Lunarian Professor

But there is muck variety and change of fashion
with us in the construction and ornamentation of
our buildings, grounds and resorts, and the fashion
prevailing in relation to the transmutation of the
dead is making a steady inroad upon our total food
supply.

I wondered what he could mean by the transmu-
tation of the dead — but said nothing, awaiting his
explanation.

''You may have thought," he went on, ''that our
dead were utilized and turned into lignite like other
effete organic substances."

"Certainly," I said, "that disposition of a useless
body is preferable to any method that prevails on
earth. Here as soon as a man dies his presence be-
comes so intolerable to us, that we are obliged in self
defense to consign him to earth. Even then the cor-
ruption resulting from dissolution is disseminated
through the soil contaminating the water supply and
starting epidemics of diphtheria and typhoid fever,
besides occupying room that sooner or later is be-
grudged to him. Cremation is certainly an improve-
ment on inhmnation, but even that is a considerable
expense, and when it is over, we have only a hand-
ful of raw mineral ashes left. The best part of the
man has gone off iu smoke and we have not three or
four pounds of good coal left to show for him as
you have. And then it ought to be a source of grati-
fication to the defunct himself if he could know it,
that his 'corpus' was turned to some useful ac-
count."

He here turned his vast eyes upon me with such
a deep expression of mild and sorrowful reproach.

The Moon and Its People 43

that I instantly felt as if I had made an exceedingly
flippant speech and had said far too much or much
too little, but he gave me no time to amend it.

''We are much more sentimental than that," he
said; ''our dead are not cremated in the manner
practiced on earth, but are totally disintegrated by
electricity, and turned into their component ele-
ments. No portion of their substance is lost or dis-
sipated, but the material is all conserved and caused
to form a new organism. The fashion originated
m.any ages ago, to use the materials to grow some
common sort of a plant or shrub from the seed, such
as something resembling your grass or fern or some
cereal. This was done in the garden vats I have de-
scribed to you. Plants grown under these cirmum-
stances or any circumstances for that matter, very
often sprout or grow into forms differing slightly
from the normal. Taking advantage of this, our
botanists have produced food plants having a won-
derful concentration of nourishing qualities in small
compass and accompanied by the least possible
quantity of v^^aste products. And in like manner our
undertakers have developed a great variety of plants
to be grown from the constituent materials of the
dead. It was formerly the fashion to preserve only
a portion of the plants, thus grown. A few leaves
were distributed among the friends of the deceased
and pressed in herbariums for preservation. But
the growing veneration for ancestors and considera-
tion for each other together with the prevalent be-
lief among us that we are formed in the very image
of the Deity, finally brought about the practice of
preserving entire, the plants produced by transmu-

44 The Lunarian Professor

tation. Thus there is already a vast accumulation of
these vegetable representatives of deceased Lunari-
ans, and our economists point out that if this goes
on, we will be compelled to constantly draw on our
natural food reserves, and that finally these will all
be consumed and everything eatable will at last be-
come transmuted into these sacred and inviolable
forms. In short the living race will finally become
transmuted into dead dry plants. These arguments
of the philosophers have as yet had no effect on the
people and their priestly leaders. They denounce
the philosophers as being unfaithful to the religion
and traditions of the race, and as advocating canni-
balism.

They say: 'you would reduce us to the level of
the necrophagous Earthlings, who from time imme-
morial have consumed the elements of their ancestors
and friends and enemies alike, with beastly indiffer-
ence'."

''But," I interrupted; "you know they are mis-
taken in this opinion of us. Only a few savages on
earth are man eaters."

''True," said he, "but what they mean is, that
from your manner of disposing of the dead, when
they become decomposed, their elements are dispers-
ed in the air and absorbed by the soil from which
they pass into plants and finally become your food.
I have heard a Lunarian say he would starve rather
than eat a grain containing a molecule of nitrogen
or carbon, that had once formed a part of one of his
ancestors."

"Well, I think that is the culmination of scrupul-

The Moon and Its People 45

osity. I am glad such phenomenal squeamishness
does not exist on this planet."

"I do not defend it nor approve of it," he replied,
* ' any more than you do. But still I think your com-
placent congratulations of your own race rather out
of place. You are quite as much under the domin-
ion of indefensible ideas as we. For example, you
have an ancient book whose doctrines and precepts
you think you must accept and oh^j whether they
are agreeable and suitable or not, although the men
who gave them, have been dead two or three thou-
sand years, while scarcely two of you agree as to
what the precepts are and each generation has a dif-
ferent interpretation of them. You have a sect that
believe that your Deity is mortally offended with all
who do not submit to be immersed under water,
while others think he will be satisfied with their hav-
ing a few drops sprinkled on the face. You have
sects that believe your Deity is greatly displeased to
see people hopping around on their legs, or dancing
as you call it, while one sect employ dancing as the
most satisfactory mode of worshipping him. You
have a sect that believe that pictures, music and
ornaments, and coats with collars that turn down are
offensive to the Deity, and who think he is best
pheased with silent worship, while others think he
likes to be flattered in loud speeches and louder
songs addressed to himself, and that he is indiffer-
ent whether coat collars stand up or lie down. You
have a sect that believe that buttons on the clothes
are offensive to him and who therefore fasten their
clothing with hooks and eyes. All these sects and
many more equally absurd, get their various contra-

46 Tlic Lunarian Professor

dictory notions from the same book, and they adhere
to them with such tenacity that in many cases they
would die rather than give them up and would if
they dared, murder other people for not accepting
them, and in times past have done so in thousands
of instances. In former times it was a common
opinion, that your Deity had an arch enemy called
the Devil, who opposed, bothered and thwarted him
in the most provoking manner, and among other
things inspired and aided thousands of unattractive
old women to turn themselves into wolves, cats and
other beasts and to becomxe witches, and in these con-
ditions to attack and injure their neighbors and
bring strange diseases upon them. For these offen-
ses these old women were judged by your sacred
books and were burnt by the thousand. And yet
many of the men of this generation, while still hold-
ing to the sacred books, have not only repudiated
witchcraft, but even the devil himself, and an at-
tempt to burn a witch would now be met by an in-
surrection. Then you have a sect, or a nation rather,
of people, who claim that they are the peculiar fav-
orites of your Deity, who chose them from among
all the nations and set them apart as his own, and
ordered them to practice a certain peculiar mutila-
tion on the bodies on their children as an evidence
and seal of his promises to them. No one of these
people would consider himself entitled to hold up
his head if it were not for his mutilation. Notwith-
standing the claims of these peculiar people are ad-
mitted by the rest, no people on earth have been
so despised, persecuted and maltreated as they. For
over 2,000 years they have been kicked and cuffed

The Moon and Its People 47

about the earth, robbed, driven repeatedly from one
country to another, and have never in all that
time possessed the sovereignty of a single township.
Then again your race believe they are made and
formedln the very image and likeness of your Deity,
yet you conceal that likeness with garments as iC
ashamed of it, and such are your notions of pro-
priety that if a man should show this divine likeness
in public, naked or even half naked, he would be
sent to prison, or a mad house. And then consider
the fashions of these garments. Those whose busi-
ness it is to make clothes, constantly demand changes
in the fashion, so as to secure m.ore employment and
profit for themselves, and whenever certain ones,
who have appointed themselves to be the leaders,
say the word, everybody feels obliged to procure
new clothes of such sort as these leaders require,
notwithstanding those they already have may be
good, useful and becoming, and that those prescrib-
ed, may be hideous, unsuitable and unhealthful.
Many of you are actually so infatuated with this
bondage, that if you could not comply with its re-
quirements, you would regard life as of no account."
During the delivery of this tirade, the flashing
eyes of my visitor showed how much his feeling was
enlisted in the subject and during the whole time I
continued to reproach myself for having started
him off on such a rampage, by an unlucky, if not
impertinent remark of my own. I was made to re-
call the adage that people who live in glass houses,
should not engage in throwing stones ; and it was
forcibly shown me how very much ''human nature"
the Lunarians possess, since while he was willing to

4S The Lunarian Professor

point out, criticise and condemn the follies of his
own people, he would not allow an outsider to do it.
I was greatly relieved when he paused and gave me
an opportunity to change the subject, which I did
with a precipitancy, that evidently amused him and
brought back the good natured expression that
habitually possessed his eyes. In fact I believe that
the change I had observed was due to intellectual
activity and was not accompanied by any real feel-
ing of resentment or passion. Said I, ''One of our
wise men has expressed the opinion, that the people
of the earth, are "maistly fules," and I believe that
most other wise men agree with him. So I beg you
will waste no more of your precious time in arraign-
ing our race, but go on with your intensely interest-
ing and instructive account of your own race and
your remarkable planet." He thereupon goodnat-
uredly resumed.

''Organic existence must everywhere be to a
great extent the same. The elements that enter into
the composition of organisms, are subject to certain
laws of chemical affinity, that demand their own
conditions, and will not operate when these condi-
tions are absent. The chief of these are furnished
by the radiations of the sun in our solar system and
no doubt by those of the stars in other systems. These
radiations impressed upon organized materials be-
come light and heat and where they are either in
excess or deficiency organic development is not pos-
sible. These conditions obtain throughout the solar
system, and no doubt in every system composed of
the same sort of elements. But of the solar system

Tlie Moon and lis People 49

we can speak with some confidence, for we have been
able to visit a considerable part of it.

The inhabitans of the different planets differ
from each other in the same way that the various
animal races of earth differ from each other. You
have on earth four sub-kingdoms of intelligent ani-
mals ; vertebrates, articulates, mollusks and radiates.
These have all been evolved from a common worm-
like ancestry, and each form possesses the potentiali-
ty of receiving an equally high development, both
physically and mentally. The development of any
of them in all cases depends upon the way they are
impressed by their surroundings and the proper sur-
roundings can develop high intelligence in either of
the forms. On earth the highest development has
happened to the vertebrate branch, but with us the
articulates have always been the dominant branch,
while the vertebrates have never attained to a condi-
tion above that of your salamanders and small liz-
zards. The ascendant race with us as with you has
always contributed to keep the others in the back-
ground, by destroying the most advanced and ag-
gressive of them and pursuing them till none but tlie
smallest, weakest and most harmless of their tribe
remain. Indeed until this is done, the position of
the ascendant race is not secure. Your own race
has had experience of this in the struggle with and
subjugation of other races. In the early history of
the earth, it was for a long time doubtful whether
it was to be dominated by the human family or by a
tribe of reptiles. At that ancient period, a tribe of
reptiles had become developed that walked erect on
their hind legs, and whose fore limbs supported

50 The Lunarian Professor

wings and terminated in excellent hands, having four
fingers. There were several related families of these
animals, some of which -were almost or quite the
equal of man in intelligence. The final triumph of
man over these advanced reptiles, was due to his
superior compact social organization. "While they
relied on their superior personal prowess and often
fought single handed, men always fought in bands,
and hung together in all their enterprises. The rep-
tiles being finally vanquished and the tribes most ad-
vanced and most to be feared having been exter-
minated, the rest had two modes of escape. They
could use their wings and thus by flight keep out of
the way of their enemies or they could hide by
crouching down in the grass and weeds and making
themselves as small, sly and inconspicuous as possi-
ble. Some pursued one of these courses and some
the other. The descendants of those that flew away
gradually became developed into the birds as you
now have them; while those that resorted to hiding
and crouching down, were thus deprived of the op-
portunity to use their limbs generation after genera-
tion and so the limbs gradually became shrunken
and useless, finally disappearing completely, or al-
most so, causing the body to come down flat on its
belly on the ground, and thus were produced the
serpents as you now have them.''

''No doubt," said T, "the serpents originated in
that way. They formerly possessed limbs, because
many species still have the rudiments of them. In
some cases these remnants show themselves like lit-
tle hooks on the outside of the skin, while many
others are covered up by the skin and are not seen

Life In and On the Moon. 51

^t all But all that retrogressive adaptation by
t^hS they lost their limbs, must have been practi-
:i; completed before our race possessed any sem-
vV r.f thpir Tiresent form and condition.

'^'^-Ii: ea'tvCproceeded, "was full of contend-
in. ra"s and of course the backset that was >m-
"oled otVe snakes, was contributed to ^y "t^.^^^^^^
wPll as men but the latter were among the last ancl
Is regarlfte particular family of reptiles m ques
tion the most formidable and eflectual opponents.
Some of your ancient traditions and literature con-

dominLt race on our planet is an articulate.

CHAPTER IV.

Life In and On the Moon.

.'I confess," said I, "that yon have demonstrated
the possibility of a development among the articu
ates'quite equal at least to that of ma^nmaR You
„,nst have animals of son^ sort .n your seas
lakes; what do you do with themi

52 The Lunarian Professor

"AVe have some lar«,'e soft bodied animals, some-
thing akin to your large mollusks and others having
a cartilaginous frame, but we have no bony fishes.
These animals are sometimes caught and turned in-
to food products, the same as other organic refuse,
but never eaten directly, as we are vegetarians. The
amount of water surface on our planet is quite small
compared with yours. The seas are narrow, but of
immense depth. Indeed, some of them are known
to have passages communicating directly through
the planet and connecting the waters of the exterior
continent, with those of the ''Pocket". The fluctua-
tion of the tides takes place bi-monthly, with enor-
mous force through these ''bores." When the moon
is between the earth and sun the tide rises on the
exterior continent, and when on the opposite side,
it rises in the interior continent, the amount of the
rise being very great in the neighborhood of these
"bores," but inconsiderable elsewhere."

"Your climate I suppose is very different from
ours — of course it must be."

"Yes certainly, and the climate of the interior
continent differs greatly from that of the exterior.
On the polar regions of the exterior continent, we
experience the extreme change of seasons, that oc-
cur on earth, from a very cold winter to a very hot
summer — all in the space of about 291/2 of your days
or 709 hours. In the equatorial regions, however, tho
extremes are greatly tempered by the winds, which
always blow toward the position of the sun, by the
great evaporation that takes place during the day,
and by the fact that the air of the equatorial bolt
is both higher and denser than that in the polar re-

Life In and On the Moon 53

gions. In many cases, the upper air is charged with
heavy clouds, that remain suspended all night or
all winter, as you choose, and these prevent the land
from becoming very cold."

"Vegetation must come on very rapidly during
your little summers," I observed.

''Yes, it does. We have grasses that grow from
the sown seed and mature their grains in eight days.
But, we have others, whose habit requires that they
be sown about midwinter, and they are harvested in
midsummer. Other plants are annual, dropping
their leaves soon after darkness sets in and putting
forth new ones again as soon as daylight returns.
Our food plants are, however, chiefly raised arti-
ficially in both the exterior and the interior conti-
nents. The farms are often immense buildings cov-^
ering several acres and consisting of from ten to
twenty stories, each story comprising a farm. As
our space can thus be multiplied indefinitely, and
as we can raise twelve or more crops a year in the
same space, you see a single acre can be made to be
equal to one or two hundred. It is not necessessary
to use this degree of economy of room in all cases,
and so, many farms consist of but a single story on
the ground, and often on the exterior continent only
the suns rays are employed instead of electricity to
furnish energy for the growth of the crop. Even
this method gives us about 13 crops a year. The
artificial methods are generally preferred, however,
as they are far more certain and reliable. In the in-
terior continent of course these methods prevail ex-

clnsivelv."

*qt seems strange," said I, ^Hhat the spaces in

54: The Lunarian Professor

the interior continent, should be great enough to
hold any considerable population. We have on earth
some large caves, but put them all together and they
would not afford shelter for the inhabitants of a
small city."

''The caves that are at present accessible to you,
are small and due to the action of water. All springs,
by carrying out mineral matter in solution from be-
low the surface, are constructing caves, and much
more extensive ones than might be supposed. But
those formed by the action of volcanoes, your ex-
plorers have had little opportunity to study, and,
but few probally have any adequate idea of the
sizes of the holes left under the surface, by the ejec-
tion of materials by volcanoes.

Some of your scientists estimated that the vol-
cano Krakatoa, in the East Indies, during a couple
of days in xVugust, 18S3, discharged a cubic mile of
materials. The volcano has had a great many erup-
tions in times past, and has throv.n out a great many
cubic miles. The materials composing the mountain
itself, have all been thrown from its crater, and the
same thing has happened in the case of all the vol-
canoes on earth, of which there are thousands. The
spaces left in the crust of the earth by this process,
have amounted in the aggregate to hundreds of
thousands of cubic miles. Many spaces thus formed,
have been filled again by melted materials pressed
up from below, by the pressure of the crust upon the
melted interior. But a vast amount of empty space
yet remains and will continue to be added to for
millions of years to come. As the earth grows older
and colder, internally, the crust will become thicker

Life In and On the Moon 55

and more unyielding, so that as new subterranean
spaces are formed by volcanic activity, fewer of
these will be filled up again and the final aggregate
of them will doubtless in time reach millions of cubic
miles. The spaces comprising the ^'Pocket" conti-
nent of the moon, above the sea level, are estimated
by us to amount to about 1,500,000 cubic miles. '^

*'This then," I observed, ''must give you a con-
tinent in there of something like 1,500,000 cubic
miles, supposing the space to be a mile high. ' '

''Yes, but that is not the shape of the interior.
The ground floor of our continent at or near the
sea level is only about 800,000 square miles, and it
consists of thousands of separated chambers, varying
from a fey rods to many miles in extent, and of every
conceivable shape, some being circular or oval, some
long and narrow, and straight or crooked. There
are a great many of the long narrow sort, extending
in some cases as m^uch as 400 miles, widening in some
places to as much as ten miles and again narrowing
down to half a mile. These are nothing less than
cracks in our planet. They run in many directions,
often intersecting each other, and they extend far
down toward the center and upward in some places
eight or ten miles before the sides arch together in
a mighty dome. There are water marks high up the
sides of these great chambers showing the sea level
to have been much higher in ancient times than at
present, and the action of the water on the sides
has greatly widened the spaces, the materials being
v/ashed into the bottomless fissures, that extend to-
ward the center of the planet."

56 Tlie Lunarian Professor

"How do YOU account for the changes in the sea-
level?" I inquired.

**As the moon cooled off, a great deal of water
was taken up by the rocks, while crystallizing and
thus chemically united with them, a great deal more
was absorbed by them mechanically, by their pores,
while a still greater quanity occupies large fissures
and chambers, penetrating in all directions through
the planet communicating with each other and con-
necting the interior waters with those of the ex-
terior continent. The action of the water has great-
ly contributed, not only to the enlargement of the
spaces in the interior continent, but to the creation
of a pulverized soil and pleasing landscapes. The
chambers that are inhabited, are of course all con-
nected with each other, but besides these, it is quite
certain there are great numbers of very extensive
ones in the masses of materials that bound the in-
habited chambers. Artificial tunnels are constantly
being cut into these walls and so ncAv countries are
often discovered and connected with the rest and
opened for settlement. In addition to those cham-
bers that come down to the sea level the aggregate
of the area of which I told you is about 800,000
square miles, there are vast areas situated at higher
levels in the material, that bounds the sea-level
chambers. These elevated areas are at all heights
from one-fourth of a mile to four or five miles above
the sea-level. There are known to be many above
these, but they are not habitable, on account of light-
ness of the air. The elevated chambers are connected
with each other, and with the lower ones, by means
of sloping passages at all grades. In some cases

Life In and On the Moon 57

chambers are located directly on top of the thick
roof of others and are reached by long and circuit-
ous routes. In a number of cases, the walls of sea-
level chambers, after closing in almost together to
form an arch over them, widen out again above and
thus form other chambers above, and sometimes
these stories continue one above another until the
surface of the hump is reached, where the openings
appear sometimes as channels, and at others, as cir-
cular craters."

*'No doubt," said I, ''the craters that our astro-
nomers see in such vast numbers on this side of the
moon communicate with your interior continent."
*'Yes they do."

*'Then is it possible, that they sometimes see
down to your interior habitations ? They report some
of these craters, as appearing to be many miles
deep."

''They cannot see down to our habitations, for
two reasons. In the first place, although the craters
connect with the vast ladyrinth of passages and
chambers below, with few exceptions they bend and
subdivide into numerous dividing branches long be-
fore they get down to a habitable level. In the
second place there are perpetual clouds standing in
all those passages, that lead to the surface of the
hump, at various elevations of from two or three to
eight or ten miles above the sea level. Of course
it is not possible to see down through these — nor up
through them either — except v.^hen they are cleared
away for a special purpose, as is done sometimes for
the benefit of our astronomers."

"They sometimes look out through these craters

58 The Lunarian Professor

then, do they ? How do they get rid of the clouds ? ' '
"I will describe one of the craters used by the
astronomers for an observatory. It is the shape of a
funnel with a diameter at the surface of the hump
of twenty-five miles. From there it tapers rapidly
inwards till at a distance of about 29 miles below
the surface, it has narrowed down to a mile in dia-
meter. This is the entrance, down to what vras ori-
ginally a vast dome shaped chamber. This chamber
is now filled to the roof on one side, by material
poured down through the funnel, while on the other
side the material consisting of volcanic ashes, scoria,
rocks etc., slopes down for three miles, the over-
arching dome finally closing down to it leaving only
a few narrow passages through into other chambers.
Well up on this slope and nearly under the center of
the great funnel, our astronomers established their
observatory. This is for the special purpose of ex-
amining the earth, which is always in sight from
this point, and as it rolls itself over every twenty-
four hours, without apparently moving out of its
tracks, it is seemingly on exhibition for our sole
benefit. As we revolve around it every month we
are enabled to see both poles alternately, while the
whole of the equatorial parts can be seen every
twenty-four hours.

We are thus enabled to make far more complete
and perfect maps of the earth, than you have your-
selves. We have powerful telescopes. The one at the
funnel observatory I am telling you of, can bring
the earth within forty miles."

"If it brought it eleven miles further it would

Life In and On the Moon 59

stop up the funnel and become invisible, wouldn't
it?" saidl.

His eyes expressed a slight gleam of humor, which
I fancied was tinged by a shade of compassion, as
he recognized this for a joke, and then he went on :

"As to the clouds— they are cleared away when-
ever we wish, by means of artificial thunder storms.
Metallic conductors have been put in place up the
sides of the lofty chambers, and at the proper
heights are fixed with their poles pointing across the
space, the positive on one side and the negative on
the opposite. Heavy electric discharges are then
made, the spark which is often one-fourth of a mile
long traversing the cloud and speedily condensing
it into rain. The observatory, I have spoken of, is
too high to be often affected by clouds, but when
the funnel is hazy, it can soon be cleared out. There
are several observatories on this side of the moon
situated like this one, and their chief business is the
examination of the earth, which is our most inter-
esting celestial object, and w^hich can never be seen
from the external continent, except at its extreme
east and west ends, from which position it is seen
low down on the horizon."

''It must be extremely handy," said I, ''to be
able to produce a shower whenever you wish. The
formation of these clouds however presupposes great
evaporation. ' '

'*Yes, evaporation takes place from the numerous
sheets of sea water in the various chambers, the ag-
gregate of which is estimated at about 120,000 square
miles. There is more or less of this sea water in al-
most every one of the sea-level chambers. Besides

60 The Lunarian Professor

the evaporation from these bodies of water, more or
less evaporation occurs from every one of the indust-
ries in which water is used, and so the aggregate is
very considerable. But it is always nearly uniform
in quantity, in the interior continent. As the sus-
pended moisture comes into contract with the upper
walls and roofs of the lofty chambers, it is being
constantly condensed, and the fresh water thus
formed trickles down the walls and slopes in drops,
rills and brooks, and finds its way through the
ground and porous rocks. Many underground
streams are formed that find their way into the high-
level chambers, which are thus supplied with pure
water. The inhabitants of others have supplied
themselves by tunnelling through into the upper
parts of lofty chambers, that have their floors at the
sea-level, and thus they tap the clouds themselves. ' '

"Our astronomers tell us that some of the Lunar
craters are 60 or 80 miles in diameter or even more,
which indicates that an enormously greater amount
of volcanic action has taken place on the moon than
on the earth. How is that?'*

He replied, "Our opioion is this: The volcanic
action in the moon toward its close and final cessa-
tion, was enormous. The planet had already been
completely honey-combed by former convulsions and
the seas had poured themselves into the underground
openings, until there was almost as much water be-
low the surface as above. This water kept up a
continual contention with the melted interior, result-
ing in still greater explosions, sending out enorm-
ous quantities of volcanic matter, forming cones in
some cases twenty-five miles high and over 100 miles

TAfe In and On the Moon 61

in diameter. The enormous weight of these volcanic
cones in many cases proved too great to be support-
ed by the crust, that separated them from the in-
terior cavities their materials had been blown out
of, and so they broke through — that is the central
part of the cones broke through, leaving a margin
of their bases all around, standing like the walls of
a crater. But these are not the original craters, as
you can see. If they were, they would be on top of
elevated cones of enormous hight, which they are
not."

"This view appears to me very plausible and I
feel the more interested in the subject, because the
idea constantly impresses itself upon me, that the
earth is repeating the history of the moon. Ac-
cording to our theories of evolution the two
bodies separated from each other, when they were
in the condition of hot expanded gases, and as the
moon contained only 1-81 part as much m.atter as
the earth, it cooled down and became a habitable
world, many millions of years before the earth. Since
you have been talking to me, the impression has
constantly grown upon me, that your moon history
is really an anticipation of our own, and it becomes
the more interesting on that account."

His eyes expressed extreme satisfaction, as he re-
plied that he was glad that I had seen that point.

"We have in one of the provinces of the interior
continent, an immense university, devoted to the stu-
dy of mundane affairs, past, present and future. The
duty is assigned me of holding a professorship in
this university, in the college of 'IMundane Prognos-
tication'. As this college has been in operation for

62 The Limarian Professor

over 100,000 years, we have had abundant oppor-
tunity to verily our system of prognostication, and
you would be surprised at the accuracy with whicli
our predictions have been realized in your history.
Of course, we could have done nothing, but for the
basis our own history gave us to work on.'*

*'AVell/* said I, ''I can't say that I am sorry to
know that my time will be out long before the earth
reaches the conditions that makes it necessary for
the inhabitants to retreat underground. These spaces
below must indeed be queer places to live in, for it
don't seem like they would be exposed to storms,
as if out of doors, and yet not cosy and homelike, as
if in a house, and I don't see how they can be other-
wise than cold damp and glommy — that is, viewed
from the stand point of earth. Am I right?"

*'No," he replied, "you are not. Those abodes,
as we have them fixed up on the moon, you would
regard as more delightful than anything you have
on earth, and as equalling your dreams of paradise.
There are as you suppose no storms and no extremes
of temperature. There is always a very light breeze
blowing, half the time in one direction, and half in
the other. This is caused by the action of the sun
on the external continent, as it progressively passes
over it from east to west. There is always fog and
cloud at all the entrances to the interior continent
that prevent the radiation of heat and help preserve
an even temperature within. All the inhabited
chambers are made as bright as sunlight by immense
and numerous electric lights, which are placed with
reference to the best, effects both from a utilitarian
and an artistic point of view. They are generally

Life In and On the- Moon 63

placed at great elevations, and are often arranged
to imitate the constellations of the heavens, so that
looking lip, one may see a portion of the sky as he
would see it from the external continent, and by
traveling about among the various interior provin-
ces, he can see the whole of it. In some of the cham-
bers, the lights are made to represent the members
of the solar system and each one is caused to make
the movements properly, belonging to it, the whole
constituting a planetarium on an immense scale— in
some instances — several miles in diameter and three
miles above the floor."

''I can well imagine the glory of such scenery
and such possibilities," said I, "but I do not see by
what mechanism you can accomplish such results."

''You must remember," he replied, ''that we
have resources, that your race does not possess. With
you a great many things would be practically out of
the question that with us are very easy. In the first
place, we are a flying race as you see, and this means
a great deal on the moon's external continent, and
still more in the internal continent, where on ac-
count of the attraction of the earth and the hump,
our weight is much reduced without a correspond-
ing reduction of strength. The fluttering and flying
about of crowds overhead is one of the pleasing
features of our life.

In the second place, the power of neutralizing
the gravity of metals, as I have explained to you,
enables us to erect works miles above the ground
more easily than you do at the surface. In fact the
works erect themselves and the most we do is to
tether them at the proper height to keep them from

64 Tlie Lunarian Professor

going too far. AVhen motion is required to be given
them, the globes of light are sometimes attached to
a car that is made to run on a single rail elliptical
track, which may be suspendid at any elevation and
reduced to a minimum weight by proper adjustments
of its gravitation, the light globe being either sus-
pended from the car or floating above it. The el-
liptical orbit is inclined enough to enable gravity to
propel the car. An automatic shunt turns on repul-
sion when the car reaches the lowest part of the or-
bit and it is then forwarded on the up grade portion,
shunted again at the top and so on perpetually. An-
other machine often used is a hollow cylindrical
stem suspended from the dome, having a series of
wheels, concentric with the cylinder, one above an-
other and caused to revolve horizontally at different
rates, by clockwork inside the cylinder. Globes of
light are suspended by long wires to these wheels,
which by their revolution, at varying rates, cause
the globes by centrifugal motion to describe large or
small orbits as desired. All sorts of eccentric and
peculiar motions are imparted to the globes by varia-
tions in the regularity of the revolutions of the
wheels, the spheres falling toward the center when
the motion is slow and fljnng outward when it is
fast. The mazes of a cotillion, are often imitated,
and the performance is called the 'dancing of tho
spheres'. This is also accompanied by music, some-
times by local bands situated on the ground playinjj^
in concert with the movement, at other times by im-
mense instruments operated by the same machinery
that drives the spheres.

It is not difficult for you to imagine the beauty

Life In and On the Moon 65

and grandeur of some of these overhead scenes.
Of course the power used is electricity, and it is
used liberally and freely since its cost is merely
nominal. Heat as well as light is supplied through
the same means and used for all purposes, domestic,
industrial and public. Our houses are very tasteful
and often highly ornamental. The architecture is
light and graceful and suited to a mild and quiet
climate, for we have the pleasant air of your tropics
without their storms or excessive heat. A slight
sprinkle of rain is all we ever have in the shape of
a storm in any part of the interior continent, and
these sprinkles are rendered periodical by artificial
means. There are no wide agricultural tracts with
us, nor densely populated cities, but the population
is distributed in towns, and continuous villages line
the roads, each of which is devoted to some prin-
cipal productive industry. There are principal
streets that run miles, passing through and connect-
ing these towns, and often bending so as to make a
complete circuit. The streets are wide and we are
always furnished with a number of rail tracks, and
paved with a hard smooth material — sometimes stone
and sometimes iron or alumina. The only vehicles
used on the streets, besides the rail cars are light,
private and pleasure carriages, propelled by storage
batteries. The roads that unite the various internal
provinces to each other and to the external continent,
are chiefly the gravity roads, that I have already
described to you. In some cases to save room, the
roads are built in stories, one track above another.
The work shops and farms, are sitiaated conveni-
ently near on streets parallel to the main thorough-

66 The Lunarian Professor

fares, and their products are conveyed from them,
and their materials to them, on roads laid on thos^^
streets."

*'I should like to know something about your
social and political arrangements, your industrial
economy and your form of government," said I. "Il*
the government controls the increase of population,
I suppose it must control labor and production ; and
consumption too — how is that?"

"The sort of control, which the government ex-
ercise is almost exclusively advisory. There is no
government control in the sense of the term as used
on earth. All productive labor is expended for the
creation of common property, to which, when creat-
ed, every individual has equal title. Not the slight-
est compulsion however is put upon labor, nor the
least prohibition upon consumption."

''Do you mean to say that nobody is obliged to
work, and yet everyone can take what he wants
from the common stock?"

''Yes."

"Then yours is an angelic race, truly. TVe have
not anything like that on this earth, and I reckon,
we never will have."

"The human race, as a whole, is not yet like it,
although the tendency is certainly that way and it
would be rash to predict it never will be, but there
are other and older races on earth, that you over-
look. Consider our relatives the Bees ; did you ever
see a lazy bee or one that wanted more than a rea-
sonable share of the common property?"

"Yes," said I, "it has become instinctive with

Life In and On the Moon 6"^

them to work and their wants are likewise, only
such as instinct dictates."

"Instincts," he replied, ''are only crystaliza-
tions of reason. They are habits become hereditary
to such a degree that the person is liable to fall
into them with little or no teaching. I know that
the people of the human race pride themselves
greatly on the assumed fact that they act from
reason, while other animals act from instinct, but
the fact is, that 99 out of every 100 good acts that
human beings perform, are done through instinct
or inherited disposition to do them, while only one
is reasoned out. And your teachers appear to un-
derstand that your instincts alone are to be de-
pended upon to produce good actions, since they
always depreciate and throw suspicion on good
acts not done from the "heart" that is, not done
from instinct. They give little or no credit for
such actions, and strive by cultivation of the emo-
tions to substitute disinterested impulse or in other
w^ords instinct, for mere calculating reason. Now
we Lunarians have long since passed this stage.
Lazy Lunarians are as impossible as lazy bees. To
work is instinctive with us and so is consideration
for the rights and dues of the rest, and as every-
one can be relied on to obey his instincts, it is not
necessary to watch any one to keep him from plun-
dering the public or shirking out of his duties."

"There have often been socialistic communities
with us," said I, "that have endeavored to live on
the principles you speak of. But their lives have
been of the most monotonous dead level sort. There
is no chance for individuality or for the develop-

G8 TJie Lunarian Professor

ment or exercise of the superior talents, which
some are certain to possess in a higher degree than
others. They are merely little despotisms and en-
dure only while their leaders are people of excep-
tional ability. AVe do not regard such a state of
society' as desirable even if it could be made per-
manent.

"With us," he replied, *'the greatest liberty
is accorded to the individual, but so well grounded
is our predisposition to work for the benefit of the
community, that no one has any fear or suspicion
that another is not doing what he ought, or is able
to do for the common good. There are extensive
colleges for art, literature, science and invention,
accessible to any according to their several tastes.
If a person thinks, for example, that he has the
conception of a valuable invention, he is admitted
to the college of invention where there is very
facility and appliance for developing the idea and
constructing the machine or instrument. In these
colleges there are depositories of models something
like your patent office, and professors are on hand
familiar with physics, chemistry and kindred scien-
ces to advise and assist the inventor. As they are
all working for the good of all, the inventor is
not afraid his idea will be stolen, he finds the as-
sistance he gets invaluable, and is often saved the
useless labor of doing something that has been
done already or attempting something in contra-
vention of the principles of physics and therefore
impossible. An invention, when made, is the prop-
erty of the public, and if it lightens labor in any

Life In and On the Moon 69

direction, it allows it to take on greater activity
in some other direction.

All articles that can be produced in quantities
by machinery are distributed to everybody desir-
ing them, but individual works of art as great pic-
tures and statuary and rare and curious things, are
placed in public art galleries, libraries etc., acces-
sible to all."

"Well," said I, ''this is extremely pretty and
no doubt it w^orks all right with you wise Luna-
rians, but I cannot help imagining what sort of a
mess we should make of it on earth, if we adopted
the same policy. I admit that many of us are
workers by instinct or at least a semi instinct, that
controls us after some habit got by practice, and
it is also instinctive with us to care for the young
and those who are helpless from disease or old age,
but there are plenty of people w^ith whom it is
equally instinctive never to do a lick of work if
they can help it, and at the same time their in-
stincts allow them to help themselves to the pro-
ceeds of the labor of others without any limit, ex-
cept that of forcible restraint."

''The trouble with you," said he, '*is that you
have no control over the production of your peo-
ple. You are like the civilized Indians, that once
inhabited some of the western parts of your coun-
try, who were constantly threatened and invaded
and finally exterminated by wild and barbarous
neighbors, except that they were physically too
weak to help themselves.

It is true your civilization is now in little dan-
ger from foreign savages, but you allow yourselves

70 Tlie Lunarian Professor

to be steadily invaded by fresh generations, of
them born in your midst, and the crudeness and
injustice of your political and social conditions,
are such as to give but slight encouragement to the
development of the unselfish instincts in anybody.
Wealth carries power and power commands re-
spect. Your wealth is distributed without justice,
sometimes by accident and to those who are mere-
ly lucky, at other times to those who are simply
selfish greedy and unscrupulous, and generally least
to those who create it, and so luck and greed be-
come prominent objects for your attention and
emulation. How very young your race is and how
much you have to learn ! ' '

CHAPTER V.
"Mundane Prognostication "—The Profile of Time.

*'You said something about a college of "Mun-
dane prognostication," you have on the moon
where you study our affairs and forecast our
future. I should be infinitely gratified to know
what your learned college has figured out for us
— if it is no secret."

"It is no secret at all," he answered, "and I
shall be glad to give you such insight in j^our
future, as our profiles in their present condition
afford."

With this he drew from a receptacle something

^'Mundane Prognostication'* 71

like a pocket under his right lower wing, a cylin-
drical roll of paper three inches in diameter, and
ten inches long, exactly resembling a roll of pro-
file paper, such as civil engineers use in plotting
the profile of a survey for a railroad. Familiarity
wish such things together with, the idea that he
intended handing it to me, caused me almost in-
voluntarily to reach out for it, but he retained it
in his own hands and began with great dexterity
unrolling it, holding the scroll in his right hand,
while with his left he rolled up again the unrolled
end. As he held these two rolled ends in his front
hands a yard apart with that length of the pro-
file open between them, he used his middle pair of
hands to point out the various marks and lines on
the paper to which attention was directed. I could
not help observing what a vast advantage one has
with four hands instead of two. When we hold a
profile thus, there is nothing left to point with, but
the nose.

In plotting the profile of a railroad survey, the
engineer uses paper several feet long and 8 to
12 inches wide, covered with fine horizontal lines,
running the whole length of it and ruled so close
together, that there are from 20 to 50 lines to the
inch. Then there are other lines drawn across the
paper at right angles to the first, and one-fourth
of an inch apart. These last represent distances of
100 feet each; or "stations;" while each of the
spaces betAveen the horizontal lines is called a foot.
Having the survey of a line of stations with the
relative height of each, ascertained by a leveling
instrument, the line is plotted on this paper so that

^2 The Lunarian Professor

its distance from the lower edge of the paper at
each station corresponds with the height of the
ground at that station. The irregular line thus
formed is a fac simile of the surface of the ground
with its vertical undulations and irregularities.
The engineer then draws a grade line on this pro-
file of the ground, that indicates the position of
the surface of the road bed, as he intends it to be
when finished. In some places this line is above
the ground line and this indicates that here is to
be a fill. In other places it runs below, and this
shows a cut.

Now the profile that the Lunarian Professor of
"Mundane Prognostication" held in his multiple
hands (I shall call him the Professor hereafter)
very much resembled in appearance that just de-
scribed, except that instead of only one there were
several profiles on this one strip of paper, one
above another. In each one there was the irregu-
lar surface line accompanied with the more or less
straight grade line showing cuts in some places
and fills in others. The professor explained these
profiles to be graphic exhibits of the state of vari-
ous human institutions and conditions as they ap-
peared during a continuous term of time begining
in the past, and extending into a far distant future.

After examining these profiles a short time, I
had little difficulty in getting the ideas intended
to be conveyed by them. They will be readily un-
derstood without much explanation. Thus the line
of *' muscular development" is shown in the remote
past as being almost up to grade, but as gradually
falling below it in the course of time, then rising

^'Mundane Prognostication" 73

again and coming almost to the grade line about
the year 2500, but after that gradually falling
away again. Selfish instinct, which has always
shown heavy cutting, comes down nearly to grade,
about the year 7200. While altruistic instinct that
regards the common welfare and has been below
grade, always, but at times higher than st present,
is seen to rise and come to grade about the same
time. Health has always shown a fill, often a large
one, but gradually rises almost to grade about the
year 2500. Crime has always been a cut, but dis-
appears in the future about the same time as
theology.

Peace, which is a condensation or composite of
all the rest and the end for which they all exist,
has always been a fill and always must be until
human actions become absolutely instinctive and
unconscious, which they never can do until men
have been acted upon and molded by habit by
every stimulation possible to their environment.
Reasoned acts are those which arise from stimula-
tions, that are new or unusual to us, and ncAV
stimulations will continue to come as long as
knowledge increases or continues to be pursued, or
to be thrust upon us. If the accumulation of
knowledge should stop, actions would finally be-
come instinctive, and unconscious. This would be
complete absence of misery, and also absence of
happiness, but perfect peace. So the grade line
of Peace is a dead level. Above it is the ragged
line of misery always a great cut, and below it is
the line oi happiness always a fill, somewhat lighter

74 The Lunarian Professor

than the cut above the line, and terminating in grade
soon after it.

I inquired of the Professor, the principle, upon
which predictions of the future Avere worked out.
He replied, that the principles were exceedingly
simple, although the actual working out of any
scheme of the future involved the consideration of
such a vast number of details and conditions, as
to render it a labor of magnitude. ** Prediction,"
said he, **is only past history, projected forward.
If we know precisely what happened in the past,
our knowledge will include the antecedent causes
of the events. Events beget events, and they suc-
ceed each other as one generation succeeds an-
other. Knowing the character and condition of one
generation and the modifications that have been
made in it by its environment, we have the prin-
cipal data for estimating the character of its suc-
cessor and so on. The principal uncertainty we
encounter, is in the prediction of changes in the
environment itself. Thus the invention of a self
portable power like steam made the invention of
railroads possible and the construction of rail-
roads completely changed the environment of the
succeeding generations.

Now it is difficult to forecast just what partic-
ular turn invention will take, but it is not impos-
sible, because inventions constitute a race with
generations one begetting another. Knowing all
that is known to-day makes it possible to see what
this knowledge will lead to to-morrow. The trou-
ble is for one to know all that is known. As I
have already mentioned, our own Lunarian history

''Mundane Prognostication' 75

greatly aids us in our study of your future, for
we have passed through an experience, which, while
it is different from what yours has been or will
be, is parallel and comparable with it. And mak-
ing due allowance for the difference in physical
structure of the two races and considering that we
are 500,000 years older than you, we have only to
consult our past in order to get your future, or
something much like it, for many generations to
come.

"These profiles of your's Professor," said I, *'are
evidently the result of much learned detail work
and they are of extreme interest and value to the
philosophical and scientific student. But to com-
mon people the details themselves are more inter-
esting, because they are more easy to be under-
stood and come nearer to the common life. Could
you not favor me with some of the future history
of our planet and expecially of the United States
and of the State of Minnesota. Any of the facts
that you have prognosticated and from which you
have deduced the generalizations that you embody
in your profiles, would be of great interest.

He seemed a little disappointed at this request,
as no doubt his habits of thought had made him
familiar with and attached to the comprehensive
and wholesale treatment of these questions, and he
looked upon the detailed story as a means to an
end and containing but little interest in itself. But
it is easier to generalize from details, than to con-
struct the details. However he complied, observ-
ing that he would be compelled to get these de-
tails in part from his memory, which however

76 The Lunarian Professor

would be prompted and refreshed by the general
profile he held in his hands.

''I will take my stand," sand he, *'at about the
year 2,000 of your era, and then by looking for-
ward and backward along these lines, I think I
can recover the principal factors that have entered
into their make-up. This will also allow me to give
you the descriptions in the past tense as events
that have been accomplished up to that time and
from that date we will also look forward, for the
events subsequent to it."

It occurred to me that he must be tired of hold-
ing the profile so long between his outstretched
hands and so I offered to hold it for him awhile,
or at least hold one end of it. At that he shifted
the rolls from his front to his middle pair of hands,
by w^hich maneuver he gave me to understand that
he had abundant resources for resting himself with-
out outside help. How I did envy him that extra
pair of hands.

He then began as follows:

''The close of the 19th century, was remarkable
as being a turning point in American affairs and
the beginning of a new era. Previous to that
time the United States had been a nation very
much to itself. It had kept aloof from the politics
of the rest of the world and had no policy in re-
gard to it except to prohibit European nations
from meddling in affairs of the western hemisphere
or acquiring any further possessions in it. But
before the century was out public opinion was ac-
customing itself to the idea that the foremost na-
tion of the earth ought to take a more active and

^'Mundane Prognosticationf* ')!^

influential part in the general affairs of the world.
The first thing designed to give weight to the in-
fluence of the country was the development of a
powerful navy. It is power that inspires the con-
sideration and respect of others. It was a favorite
idea with many of the leaders of political thought
that arbitration might become the last resort in
the settlement of international disputes instead of
the ancient plan, by which the contestants tem-
porarily laid aside such civilization as they might
have acquired, reduced themselves back to bar-
barism in murdering each other, destroying proper-
ty, plundering commerce, and often spending more
money several times over than the matter in dis-
pute was worth. But even these statesmen saw
that a plan favoring peace would come with much
more force and authority from a nation having
power to enforce it by war, and so all were glad
to see the great navy built.

As the public lands became transferred to pri-
vate ownership and prices steadily went up, at-
tention was turned to the sparsely settled terri-
tories of neighboring countries, and the elements of
a great party in favor of their annexation were
developed in the ranks of all the parties, at the
same time the theories of the land tax advocates
received additional attention, especially from me-
chanics and the manufacturing classes. They reas-
oned that the increase in the value of land ought
to belong to the state instead of to the people
who had bought the land, and if the state had
that increase, the interest on it would support th^
government and taxes could be abolished. The

'i8 The Lunarian Prnfrssof

enormous amounts raised by taxation came at last
from labor, they said, part of it in the way of
tariffs on goods imported and consumed by work-
ers and part by direct taxation on the products of
labor and even on the means and appliances — tools
shops and factories — by which wealth was produc-
ed. This mode of taxation they said was, as far
as it went, a ban placed upon industry and a pen-
alty upon the creation of wealth. They proposed
therefore to take all the taxes off from the pro-
ducts of labor and seize the rents of land or so
much of them as might be required for the support
of the government, in that way getting the interest
on the increase in the value of the land that had
taken place since it passed into private hands and
which they denominated *' unearned increment.'*
This agitation began in your day — you must re-
member it."

The expression *'in your day" had at first a
singular effect on me. I had quite unconsciously
but thoroughly entered into the spirit of the Pro-
fessor's method and had gone forward with him to
the year 2,000 and followed closely his discussion
of things that happened 100 years ago — from that
standpoint. The sudden realization that my day
had gone by, was startling — **Yes," I said to my-
self, *'that is so, 'my day' has gone by, my exist-
ence has been continued over a space during which
I have not lived. Memory has nothing to say of
it. It is as if I had slept it away. Well if one is
asleep, one day to him, is as 1,000 years — aye,
eternity !

''Mundane Prognostication'' "^^

mat can hurt him ^vho is asleep? Nothing,
unless it wakes him up. .

All this flashed through :ny bram m an anstan
and then „.y • attention suddenly -tuWJ; J^.f,
the Professor had been saymg. Kemember it.
Yes I remember it well. In my day there was a
Sety in Minneapolis called, I.;^i-%*J^«./-£
Tax League, devoted to this agition. Their deas
l:re^hose Jf Henry George, as set forth by him m
his able book called : ' ' Progress and Poverty.

<^Yes well, to the labors of this persistent and
aggressi;e society are to be attributed in a grea
measure, the radical change in ideas of political
"onom; that soon came about. After much dis-
ussion, petitioning of the legislature, agitation m
the newspapers, the organifiation of auxiliary so-
cieties, the presentation of the subject m labor as-
sociations etc., the working classes m the cities
and even the landless laborers on farms were per-
suaded that their interests lay in the abolition ot
all taxes, except those on land. It was not long
before these classes constituted a majority by rea-
son of the rapid growth of the cities. As soon as
they found themselves in power, they proceeded o
get the constitution of the state amended to enable
the legislature to release all classes from taxation
except those who possessed land. In your day
about half the taxes had been raised from land
and the other half from the buildings and improve-
ments on the land and from personal Property. It
was estimated that relieving the latter half, would
simply double the tax on land and so make it about
four per cent on its valuation. It was argued that

so The Lunarian Professor

the farmer would experience no chanpre at all, be-
cause the additional tax put upon his land would
no more than equal that taken off his houses, barns,
stock and tools. The only persons who would
lose by the single tax would be the speculators,
who held unimproved land and were waiting for
the labor and improvements of their neighbors to
raise its value, so they could sell out and get an
increase in value which they had done nothing to
earn. As these people were looked upon as a sort
of parasites, they were not regarded as having any
rights in the matter that need to be respected. All
that was necessary in their case was simply to out-
vote them. The benefits of the new system it was
expected would fall upon the industrial classes
especially and directly, but w^ould be shared by all.
Manufacturing industries relieved of the repres-
sion of taxation, would bound forward like a
spring suddenly released. Nothing would any
longer artificially limit the production of wealth
and the great stimulation it would receive would
result in making even articles of luxury so com^
mon as to place them within the reach of everj^one.
The land speculating class, while admitting that
the rest of the people would be benefitted by the
single tax, claimed that it would be done at their
expense and unjustly. They had bought the land
and paid for it and the state had got the money.
With this money, and the interest on it, the state
had built the university, the state capitol, the pen-
itentiary, the charitable institutions and innumera-
ble school houses. In other w^ords, they had given
the state the interest on their money and taken in

''Mundane Prognostication* 81

lieu of it the anticipated increase in the value of
the land. Moreover, they had paid taxes on the
land as they would have done on the money, if
they had retained it. And so they maintained that
the increment in the value of the land was not un-
earned. It was simply the interest on their money
which would have brought a like profit if it had
been invested in mining manufacturing, banking
or steamboating. They admitted that in some cases
this profit had been greater than that derived from
other sorts of investments, but in many cases it
was far less. They said the single tax meant a
confiscation of the land and the resumption of it
by the state that had once sold it; because it
would very soon, if not from the first, take the entire
amount of the rent which would make the fee of
the land worthless to the owner. It would no long-
er be possible to mortgage it or to sell it and the
owner would lose his investment and be reduced
to a mere tenant, who could hold it only as long as
he paid the rent to the state the same as any other
tenant, and if it were unimproved, the owner would
have no inducement to pay the rent and would
simply abandon it. In view of that, they said, that
the state should at least pay back the purchase
money it had received with interest at the rates
prevalent during the time that she had possessed
it, or failing that, she should postpone so radical a
change or make it gradual by annually increasing
the assessment upon land and diminishing it upon
other property, and thus consume at least thirty
years in making the transfer complete.

The impatience of the tax reformers would not

82 The Lunarian Professor

allow any such postponement as this. They said
they did not propose to wait a whole generation
to have this wrong made right.

They said the state never had any right to sell
the land in the first place. The people's ownership
therein was inalienable and any pretended sale was
void the same as the sale of the property of a
minor for taxes, or the sale of a stolen horse. The
real owner had a right to take his property where-
ever he could find it, without compensation to the
pretended owner who happened to be in possession
as a party to a fraudulent sale. So they held that
the people could take possession of their land if
they saw fit, but they agreed that it would be bet-
ter policy, to leave the claimants in possession and
merely take all the rents except a small percentage
to be left in the hands of the claimants as compen-
sation to them for collecting and paying over said
rents to the state. These rents moreover were to
be called taxes instead of rents.

The majority having without serious effort
brought about a reconciliation between their logic
and their interests, proceeded to put their conclusions
into operation. The constitution of Minnesota was
amended in due course and the new plan put into
execution with much growling and protest on the
part of the land owners, but without violence or
serious trouble, all the rest of the country looking
on with great curiosity.

The effects very soon began to show themselves.
Nearly the whole tax being removed from shops
and factories, profits and manufacturing became at
once very considerably enhanced. This induced

^'Mundane Prognostication" S3

numbers of manufacturers to emigrate from other
states and from Europe to Minnesota, and so the
population and wealth of the cities increased with
unexampled rapidity. By the year 1925, the pop-
ulation of Minneapolis had reached 1,780,000 and
that of St. Paul, was over half as great."

"Then," said I, ''the cities must have grown
solidly together and formed a continuous town."

"Not at all," he replied, "University and Como
avenues, became continuous streets, with good res-
idences. But both cities became compactly built
up with tall and substantial buildings for offices,
dwellings and factories. Nearly everybody that
paid rent lived in flats. These buildings were ten
to 16 stories high, fire proof, furnished with ele-
vators, electric heat and light. In connection with
many of them, were cook shops, in which the ten-
ants could get their provisions cooked at cheaper
rates than they could do it themselves, and save
their own time for other employment. A great
many women who in your day, would have been
kept at home all day to cook the meals for a small
family were enabled to seek profitable employment
in various kinds of shops factories and offices, or
had their time for recreation or leisure.

Cooking became a regular profession and people
no longer cooked for themselves to any greater
extent than they doctored themselves. Kindergar-
tens were likewise attached to these great co-opera-
tive dwellings, in which those too young to go to
school, were looked after in the absence of their
parents.

As mechanics and people of moderate incomes

84 The Lunarian Professor

could live not only cheaper, but far better in these
buildings, than in separate homes at long distances
from the business and industrial centers, as well
as enjoying far better opportunities for society
amusement etc., they soon came to adopt that sort
of life exclusively and separate residences con-
tinued to be maintained only by the rich. The
growth of the cities continued for many years to
be confined to the large spaces that in your day
were left vacant far within the corportae limits.
People owning such property, were anxious to get
it improved so as to get their taxes back in the
rents of buildings. Those owing suburban lands
and lots soon found that it would be useless to im-
prove them as people would not occupy them till
all the more central lots were occupied. Much dis-
pute arose as to the way in which such property
should be taxed. At first the assessments of valu-
ation on the lands were as high as they had been
before the adoption of the single tax plan. But it
was soon found that the land no longer possessed
such value. The value had been prospective or
speculative, and people had paid as tax far more
than the land would rent for, and held it and paid
taxes on it for what it was expected to bring in
the future. But now so much of the speculative
value was taken out of this suburban land that the
owners refused to pay the taxes in many cases, and
nobody would buy it at the tax sales because the
tax was more than the rent for agricultural pur-
poses, and to buy for the future was like leasing
property and paying rent on it for some years be-
fore occupying it.*'

"Mundane Progtiostication'* 85

"But," I interposed, "the single tax people in
Minneapolis disclaimed the intention of taking a
full rental of the land in the way of taxes, but only
enough to support the government, and thought
that four per cent of its value would do that. As
money was then worth 6 per cent and rents would
average about the same the owner would clear 2
per cent. This they said would be sufficient to
make the owner retain his interest in the prop-
erty.''

"Yes,'' he answered, "that was their notion,
but the events turned out very differently.

When the tax was two per cent and the rents,
six per cent, the owner got clear the equivalent
of six per cent on two thirds of the value of the
property. But when the tax was increased to 4
per cent, he got the equivalent of six per cent on
only one third of it. Thus his net income being
reduced to one-half of what it was, the selling and
buying value of the land was likewise reduced one-
half. This made no difference to the tenant paying
rent, he still had to pay the same, but, two-thirds
instead of one-third now went to the state. But
within the corporate limits of Minneapolis, St. Paul
and other cities, there was a great amount of un-
used land, that produced no rent. This unused
land constituted about three-fourths of the total
areas of those cities and represented one-third of
their total land valuation. The very first assess-
ment of the new tax was the signal for the reduc-
tion in the value of all this property, fifty per cent
or more at once, and every acre was immediately
thrown upon the market. By the time of the next

8Q The Lunarian Professor

assessment the assessors were obliged to recognize
this depreciation, and so all this land was return-
ed at half or less than half of what it had been.
The loss of tax money thus sustained had to be
made up by a higher rate, and the second levy
was placed at 5 per cent instead of 4 per cent. This
v/orked a further reduction in the values of unoc-
cupied lots and by the time of the third assessment
these lots were estimated as having only the value
of farm or garden lands ; and so it became neces-
sary to still further increase the rate of taxation,
which was now established at six per cent.

In the meantime it began to be discovered that
the owners of improved lots had lost all the money
they had invested in them. A certain person who
had bought a lot on Nicollet ave., for $40,000 and
erected a building on it at a cost of $40,000 more,
did not for two or three years discover any great
difference in his tax, because although it was trans-
ferred from the building to the lot the whole
amount was nearly the same. But after the tax as-
sessment reached six per cent, the building was
burned down just after the expiration of the in-
surance policy. The gentleman thought he had
lost half of his property by neglecting the insur-
ance, but in reality, he had lost it about all. He
could not mortgage the lot for enough to build a
house, nor even for enough to pay one year's tax.
Nor could he sell it for one-tenth of what he gave.
It was his only on condition that he continued to
pay a full rent for it and this he could not do
unless he could rebuild. Even if he rebuilt, his
pet income would be only the interest on the cost

''Mundane Prognostication'* 87

of the building, he would get no return for the
lot, or at best, but little. Thus the owner found
himself no better off than a lease holder. He sim-
ply had the first right to pay the rent for his lot
in the way of tax. And so it came about that if
an owner could not immediately build something
on his lot that he could rent to advantage, he sim-
ply defaulted on his taxes. The selling of vacant
property for taxes became impossible except those
lots wanted for immediate improvement, and not
even those if several years' taxes were in arrears.
So the collection of back taxes became impos-
sible on all vacant porperty.

The effect of the single tax on farming land
was much the same. Not over seven-tenths of the
arable land in the state was under actual cultiva-
tion. Large tracts were held by nonresident spec-
ulators. When the increased tax came to be levied,
these lands were all thrown on the market. The
depreciation in prices of these lands at first
brought a considerable access of population, but
this soon became checked, because the farmers
found that on account of the loss of taxes on these
lands, the rates had to be increased and the addi-
tional burden fell on the resident farmers. These
in almost all cases owned considerable land they
did not cultivate, but were saving for speculation
or for their children. Often a farmer owing 160
acres, cultivated, but 40. As the burdens fell
heavier on this class, they commenced throwing up
the uncultivated parts of their farms, so that from
these various causes in a few years almost three-
fourths of the arable land was without claimants,

S8 The Lunarian Professor

and of course yielded no taxes. The farmers, then
found themselves greatly reduced in wealth, the
lands they had counted on as belonging to them,
now being thrown out as commons; and even for
the acres they cultivated they paid more in the
way of taxes than would have been considered a
fair rent in "Wisconsin or Iowa. Their net wealth
v/as in fact reduced to their buildings, live stock,
and tools.

The lands themselves, they could neither sell
nor mortgage. It was not practicable under these
conditions to compete with the farmers in adjoin-
ing states, and so in a few years, the markets of
Minneapolis and St. Paul came to be supplied chief-
ly from adjoining states. Many of the farmers
ruined and disgusted, gathered up what they could
and left the state. Others moved into the cities,
which were booming, and went into other business.

There now began to come into the rural dis-
tricts of the state, two classes of settlers or rather
occupants of a different character. The fii*st of
these were drovers with herds of cattle from ad-
joining states. They drove their cattle about from
from place to place, over the abandoned lands, but
never settled anywhere and as cattle were not tax-
able, and they claimed no land, they paid no taxes.
They also escaped taxes at their legitimate homes
in other states, because their cattle were conven-
iently away at assessing time.

The other class of new occupants that came in,
were poor squatters. These brought little or no
capital, and no enterprise or ambition beyond
enough to supply the essentials of existence. A

'' Mundane Prognostication" 89

family of this kind would alight on an unoccupied
spot, construct a cabin or a dug-out, cultivate
four or five acres of grain and potatoes, and eke
out the rest of a living with a few cows and pigs.
Little or no tax could be collec from them, and
of course little or no public improvements, such as
schools, bridges, roads etc., were accomplisiied
where they squatted in any considerable force. In
short, it gradually came about that the inhabitants
of the rural districts did but little more than sus-
tain themselves. And the state ceased almost en-
tirely to be an exporter of agricultural products.
The cities however suffered nothing on this ac-
count. They got their supplies largely from the
neighboring states, and they became large produc-
ers and exporters of manufactured articles, com-
peting in that respect with some of the famous
manufacturing towns of Europe; and they became
enormously wealthy.

The question of taxation was however always
a difficult one. The lands near the centers of the
towns of course were the most valuable. But lands
were never sold— only the buildings— and any given
lot came to be valued by the kind of building and
the amount of business on it. So assessments final-
ly had to be fixed by an arbitrary rule— the rates
decreasing at a fixed ratio according to distance
from the center of greatest business activity. The
rule had a tendency to verify itself by compelling
the most valuable business to be done in the places
subject to the highest rates, since the less valuable
could not afford it. By this rule the rates in the
suburbs were low, and since the buildings paid no

90 The Lunarian Pi'ofessor

tax, it often happened that a millionaire living in
a $100,000 house paid little, if any more than a
laborer living in a $300 shanty. But in the course
of time it came to pass that notwithstanding the
general prosperity, there were many who were
wretchedly poor, made so by bad management, ex-
extravagance, indolence, ill health, dissipated hab-
its, disappointment and ill luck. These became
squatters in the vacant lands around the outskirts
of the cities. They paid no rent and no taxes. It
was found that it was useless to evict them as no-
body could be found with money who could gain
anything by paying their taxes, as long as there
was plenty of unoccupied land. There also came
to be a positive sentiment against eviction of the
poor and so this non tax-paying class constantly
increased and finally included many who w^erc
able to pay, but who shirked out, satisfying their
consciences by the plea that the government had
no right to discriminate, and exempt some and not
others. These ideas expanded and finally crystal-
lized into a political creed to the effect that a poor
man ought not to be taxed for a spot on which
to exist and bring up his family. Thus it came
about that neither the very poor; nor the very rich
whose property was chiefly in fine buildings, stocks,
bonds and other personal effects, paid any consider-
able amount of the taxes.

The taxes were paid by such of the farmers as
had still too valuable improvements to justify
their abandonment, and by the mechanics and
merchants whose business and whose residences

''Mundane Prognostication** 91

were packed in tall buildings on small areas o£
ground in the cities.

The great stimulation of the growth of the
Minnesota cities, and their apparently great pros-
perity, attracted the attention of the whole world
and aroused the spirit of emulation in the cities
of the United States and of the northern states
in particular. In most of the northern states, the
city populations controlled ' the politics of the
states, and there developed a violent mania for fol-
lowing the example of Minnesota. There was much
opposition from the conservative classes, and the
people were warned that a policy that might bene-
fit a small section of the nation, was not necessari-
ly good for all. But it was held by many to be
simply a measure of self defense for cities to com-
pel their states to adopt the single tax, since those
where this was done, not merely flourished, but
flourished at the expense of those who remained
under the old method. For they attracted from
them, their manufacturing establishments and this
was naturally followed by their wholesale trade.
The result was that in a few years, all the north-
ern states and several of the southern states adopt-
ed the single tax. The effect was not so marked
in those that came into the plan among the last;
but the first experienced much the same stimulation
and rapid growth that distinguished the Minnesota
towns, so that in a few years the majority of the
population had crowded into the cities. This ef-
fect was brought about by the action of two causes.
The first cause was the superior attractions of the
cities as places for profitable employment and as

92 The Lunarian Professor

places for the enjoyment of life. The cities rapid-
ly became socialistic in their policy, and constant-
ly extended the scope of the functions of the gov-
ernment. The municipality soon acquired the
ownership of the lighting plants, the water works
and street car lines. These were run at first as
speculative enterprises, the cities selling light and
w^ater to private individuals, but the people soon
demanded that these things should be free as the
public libraries, schools, university and parks, were
in your day. And this was gradually brought
about, the cities furnishing at first so much water
and so much light and so many street car rides
free to each person, and at last taking off all lim-
its, only making the citizen responsible for un-
reasonable waste. Then the populace demanded
free amusements and entertainments and these
were provided in the form of the concert, lecture,
theater, circus etc. All these things cost money
and the tax rates kept getting higher and higher.
These were paid in the form of rents on the land,
the buildings stood on and of course at once trans-
ferred to the rents paid by tenants for rooms, flats,
shops, stores etc. Rents soon became higher than
they had ever been known before the adoption of
the single tax. To lighten these rents in the cities,
it was now proposed to increase the rents of lands
in the country.

Confiscation of Lands 93

CHAPTER VI.
Confiscation of Lands.

The former owners of these lands had now been
practically dispossessed. Many of them had gone
to the cities and engaged in more profitable busi-
ness than farming. Many who were mortgaged
had been sold out, bankrupted and ruined, and had
settled down into the condition of peasants. The
lands were now regarded as the property of the
state. This process of the transfer of the lands to
the state went further in Minnesota than the other
states, because she was the first to adopt the new
plan of taxation. After the other states adopted
it, the advantage their farmers had over those of
Minnesota was lost. Rents under the name of taxes
were levied, farming rendered unprofitable and the
uncultivated portions of the land abandoned by
their owners. The few southern states that did not
go into this new plan could not reap much ad-
vantage from their position, because their products
were different from those of the northern states
and could not replace those whose cultivation was
repressed.

Agricultural products fell off to such an extent,
that in a few years the United States ceased to be
an exporter of them. The cities having gained con-
trol of the states, it came to be a political theory

94 ^/i^ Lunarian Professor

that each state was a community, and that the
lands abandoned or forfeited for taxes belonged to
the Community and therefore came indirectly un-
der the control of the cities. From this position
it was an easy step to the idea that the taxes — or
rents as they were designated — of the *' people's
lands" might be spent where most beneficial to
the majority, that is, in the cities. It was at-
tempted to be pointed out by the more conserva-
tive that this was class legislation. But the radi-
cal progressives replied that it was in line with
the theory of the single tax which was class legis-
lation if anything could be. And they asserted
that the adoption of the single tax carried with it
an endorsement of the principle of class legislation
when demanded by the interests of the majority.
Whether their reasoning was sound or not they
carried the day, and a great stride was taken to-
ward the centralization of power and population.
It now happened that when more money was want-
ed it was raised, not by increasing the rents of city
lots, but those of farming lands, and after a time
the principle revenues came to be derived from
them. Although the exportation of grain, flour,
beef etc., had practically ceased, still the people
had to eat and their food had to be raised on the
land. The business of farming gradually took on
entirely new features. Large operators took large
tracts on lease from the state at prices determined
periodically by appraisment fixed in proportion to
the needs of the state. Lands taken on these terms
were guaranteed to be kept free from the competi-
tion of squatters, so that the. lands remaining va-

Confiscation of Lands 95

cant were cleared of squatters, or else the latter
were restricted to a mere garden patch. Thus the
country was no longer occupied by farmers resid-
ing on the lands with their families as in former
times. The agricultural districts were inhabited
only by a poor and thriftless class of peasants and
during the summers by the employes of the large
contract farmers who made their headquarters and
resided with their families in the cities. In the
winter, only such hands as were required to care
for the stock remained in the country, the rest all
flocking to the towns.

One result of the increased rentals charged
for the agricultural lands appears not to have been
anticipated. That was the great rise in the cost of
food. Of course the rents of the lands were sim-
ply added to the cost of the production of grain
and other foods, and finally v/ere paid by the con-
sumer. It came to be seen after a time that the
public revenues raised out of the agricultural lands
were finally paid by all the people in proportion-
not to their wealth or ability, but to their appe-
tites and the amount they consumed — so that a la-
boring man with a vigorious appetite paid more to
support the state than a dyspeptic millionaire.
And a poor man's family of six or eight ravenous
offspring contributed many times as much as the
scanty and sickly progeny of the exclusive aristo-
crat. It speedily became a cause of great dissatis-
faction and disappointment when the poor and the
working classes found out that the fine promises
of the single tax had so far failed that instead of
lightening their burdens it had increased them.

96 The Lunarian Professdr

And that the confiscation of the lands of the farm-
ers instead of adding to the prosperity of the com-
mon people had increased the already plethoric,
wealth of the rich. A school of politicians now
arose who declared that the taxation of land was
the taxation of the poor man's bread and butter
and was all wrong. Instead of farming land pay-
ing the bulk of the taxes they said it ought not to
pay any. Every facility and encouragement ought
to be given for the production of cheap food. Peo-
ple ought not to be taxed on what they consume,
but on what they save. Neither labor nor the la-
borer should be taxed, they should be made as
free and unhampered as possible for the produc-
tion of wealth. But when wealth was once pro-
duced then it should be taxed wherever found and
a necessary portion of it taken as the revenue of
the state. The laboring classes were in a mood
to listen to this logic whether sound or not. The
lands having passed out of private hands, how-
ever, there was no disposition to allow them to pass
back to them again. And the new party advocated
state superintendence of the lands and free occu-
pancy by private individuals of such amounts as
each could actually cultivate to advantage. As
the population and demand for land increased, the
amounts allotted to individuals was to be cut down
proportionally, and a grade or standard of cultiva-
tion and quantity of production was to be exact-
ed, and the state was to fix the prices at which
the products were to be sold. Eventually it was
proposed that the state should be the purchaser
and distributor of these products so that specula-

Confiscation of Lands 97

tion in them should be prevented. The advantage
possessed by some on account of their nearness to
market would be equalized by the state paying a
less rate for their products than for those further
away.

Taxes for revenue were then to be levied upon
every piece of personal property that could be
found of every sort whatever including buildings.
In the cities a graded rent for lots was to be assess-
ed according to locality, beginning at zero in the
vacant suburbs and increasing toward the center
of greatest activity and demand. A thoroughness
in assessment and the employment of methods that
were called by their critics, "odiously inquisitor-
ial," were to be adopted, but the fact was the
mass of the people were drifting rapidly toward
socialism in their ideas, and they asserted that the
*' inquisitorial methods" were alright. They said,
it was high time to know how much wealth people
had and how they came by it, and that reluctance
to tell on the part of the possessors of it indicated
that either they had acquired it by questionable
methods, or wished to avoid the fair responsibility,
that its ownership entailed. They went further and
declared it was high time that more scientific pro-
cesses were discovered and put into practice for
the equitable distribution of wealth. A thousand
men contribute to the production of $1,000,000 of
wealth, all of which is gobbled up in a few weeks
or months by the scheming of a single *' financier."
The board of directors of a railroad, a mining com-
pany or a manufacturing company, may issue to
themselves certificates of watered stock for which

98 The Lunarian Professor

they pa}^ not a cent, and which represent wealth
having no existence, but which they are in a posi-
tion to compel the public to make good. A gang
of speculators may get up a corner on wheat or
cotton or stocks of some sort and artificially raise
the price while they unload at the advanced rate
thereby securing wealth they never earned. Com-
binations and trusts in oil or sugar, screws, nails,
coal, whisky, gas-pipes or binding twine, arbitrari-
ly advance the price of the articles whenever they
want more money, and thus take as many thou-
sands or millions from that patient ass, the public,
as they see fit without a pretense of returning an
equivalent. All these things the politicians of the
new school declared must be stopped. They said
people should not be allowed to secure wealth with-
out in some way earning it, and if they had manag-
ed to secure it without rendering an equivalent
for it, it would be no more than right to confiscate
it for the benefit of the public at whose expense
it must have been acquired. The party advocating
these ideas rapidly came into power and proceeded
to put their views into practice. It was found af-
ter much discussion and some experimenting that
people would not work and do their best unless
they were paid better for their best than for their
w^orst. The experiment of making the state the
buyer and wholesale seller of all articles that could
be made the subjects of combines and trusts was
found to work well. The state did not at first un-
dertake to manufacture or produce anything, but
monopolized its transfer from producer to con-
sumer. For example the producers of anthracite

Confiscation of Lands 99

coal were required to sell their product to the gov-
ernment, and it was unlawful for them to sell to
anyone else. The price of mining, handling and
transportation and the selling rate were each fixed
by a board of arbitration and remained fixed till
the conditions changed. There was no such thing
as striking among the hands, for if they were dis-
satisfied all they could do was to leave and allow
others to take their places. If no others were will-
ing to do the work it was an indication that the
rate was too low and the board of arbitration rais-
ed it. It had been settled before this that the mine
owner had no royalty rights. These were regard-
ed as the property of the state. So if the mine
owners attempted to combine to raise the price to
the state or from perverseness refused to furnish
the amount required their properties were placed
by the state in the hands of receivers to be worked
till such time as the matters in dispute were regu-
lated.

Other mining industries, and the production o£
coal-oil, sugar and other articles capable of con-
trol by trusts, were regulated and handled in simi-
lar manner by the state. As to railroad, telegraph
and express properties, they all passed into direct
government ownership before the middle of the
twentieth century.''

The Professor pausing here for a moment to
shift his profile, I ventured to say that I had in
my day anticipated this move on the part of the
government, but many people had been unable to
see how it could be carried into effect without sim-
ple confiscation, because they said it would bank-

loo The Lunarian Professor

rupt the country to buy the roads etc., and pay
their value for them.

''There was no difficulty at all in the matter,"
the Professor continued, ''the owners of the roads
received for them all they were worth, and yet
they did not cost the country a dollar. First the
government had the roads appraised on a capitaliz-
ed basis, in which account was taken of the actual
value in cash of the property as it stood regard-
less of the amount of stock and bonds outstanding
against it. Next, account was taken of its power
to earn money.

The government now provided for the issue of
consolidated railway bonds guaranteed by the gov-
ernment. These all bore the same rate of interest,
three per cent payable annually. They were in five
series, due in 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 years respec-
tively, an equal amount of each. They were in de-
nominations of $20.00, $50.00, $100.00, and $1,000,
with coupons for the interest attached, the lower
denominations payable at the earlier dates.

These bonds were issued in exchange for the
railway securities on the following terms. Bonds
at their face value were allotted to each road to
the amount of its estimated cash value, plus its
net earnings for that one year next preceding the
passage of the act of purchase. Many roads earned
only enough to pay their running expenses, and
these received only the amount of their appraised
valuation. For the purpose of the distribution of
the allotment of the purchase bonds to the holders
of the railway securities in any given ease, ac-
count was taken of the market quotations of the

Purcliasc of the Railways 101

several sorts of stocks and bonds at a date one
year previous to the act of purchase, and the value
of each person's holding thus ascertained. Then
the purchase bonds were distributed to the individ-
uals pro rata to these values. When seven-tenths
in interest of the proprietors of any road accepted
the terms of the government purchase the other
three-tenths were obliged to accede or lose their
interests.

A few roads held out for a short time, but af-
ter the ice was broken they all at once became
eager to transfer their properties to the govern-
met. The railway consols at once became popular
and were rated above par, the government guaran-
ty making them in reality national bonds. A new
cabinet office — secretary of transportation — was
created. All the employes on the roads from the
superintendents of transportation down, held their
places under civil service rules, and this branch of
the administration never came under political con-
ditions, but was managed upon strictly business
principles like the post office. The income from
the roads, from the very first year not only paid
the interest on the railroad consols, but yielded a
handsome surplus that was annually laid aside in
safe investments to serve as a sinking fund for
the redemption and cancellation of the bonds as
they should mature. Before the end of the twen-
tieth century one-half of these bonds had been re-
tired and great reductions had been made in pas-
senger and freight rates and the service had vast-
ly improved over what it was in your day. Strikes,
freight and passenger rate wars with their terrific

102 The Lunarian Professor

waste and demoralization of business were things
of the long past. Many other leaks of railway
earnings were stopped when the roads became the
property of the government. Many small pieces
of road became consolidated under one superin-
tendence; hordes of directors, presidents, vice pres-
idents, general managers, general agents, solicitors
of business and other officials were dispensed with ;
many of whom under the former regime, not only
drew salaries for supposed cervices, but absorbed
besides in various mysterious ways, vast wealth
that of right should have gone to the stockholders.

The total mileage of the railroads

of the U. S. in 1893 was 173,370

Total capital stock $5,021,576,551

Total bonds 5,510,225,528

Total actual cost $15,000 per mile.. 7,801,650,000

Total earnings, one year 1,208,641,498

Total net earnings 358,648,918

Amount of the railroad consols to be

issued in payment of the R. R.. . 8,160,300,000

Annual interest on same at three

per cent 244,809,000

Surplus of railway income after pay-
ing interest on railroad consols
to be applied to sinking fund. . . . 113,839,918

Amount of sinking fund after twenty
years to be used in the extinction
of one-fifth of the consols 1,632,060,000

Net income of roads increased to 400,000,000

Surplus to be used in betterments. . . . 41,351.082

Purchase of the Railways 103

(The above figures I have worked out to accord
with the Professor's suggestions — as he did not
give details. I have put the average value of the
roads at $45,000 per mile which is much more than
it would cost to replace them.)

"I suppose," said I, ''that these bonds, especial-
ly those of the lower denominations would circu-
late to some extent as currency."

''They did, and those of the $1,000 denomina-
tion were used as the basis of paper currency. But
now at the close of the twentieth century over
half of these bonds have been retired and the cur-
rency based upon them withdrawn. The railroad,
telegraph, transportation, express, and car com-
panies have all disappeared and the entire busi-
ness is conducted by the general government. All
of the roads will soon have been entirely paid for
and the rates for the transportation of passengers,
goods and messages are reduced almost to actual
cost of the service including Avear and tear. You
would doubtless be surprised 'hy the schedule of
prices. For example, passenger rates for ten miles
or under three cents, 20 miles five cents, 50 miles
ten cents, 100 miles fifteen cents, 200 miles 25
cents, 500 miles 50 cents and greater distances at
the same rate provided it is a continuous ride in
the same train."

"In my time," said I, "electricity was being in-
troduced as the motive power on railways. Did it
prove successful?"

"It did, eminently so, and entirely superseded
steam locomotion, although steam stationary en-
gines were used principally, throughout the cen-

104 The Lunarian Professor

tury. But when we come to look forward into the
twenty-first centmy, we shall find some remarkable
changes. But we have not reached that yet.

*'I am curious to know how the currency ques-
tion was settled. After the retirement of the rail-
way consols, I suppose they fell back on gold or
paper based on it, did they?"

*'The use of gold and silver money was never
discontinued entirely, and both were coined. Near
the close of last century, the free coinage of silver
was strongly demanded by the people and strongly
opposed by the financiers. Finall}^ they compromis-
ed. The government gave up the task of main-
taining the parity of the metals at any ratio, but
coined both.

The silver "dollar" with its fractions, half
quarter and dime was coined in quantities to ac-
commodate the business. Silver was made a legal
tender for limited amounts. This gave silver the
character of ''fiat money," or money that is legal
and current at inflated values. They made gold
the standard of value. In this they were right.
There could logically be only one unit of value.
But the debtor class strenuously opposed the plan.
They said it w^orked great injustice to them, be-
cause their debts were contracted at times when
money bore inflated values ; when for example sil-
ver was intrinsically worth only half as much as
gold. These debts were therefore now payable in
money twice as valuable and twice as hard to get
as that for which they had gone into debt. In
other words they paid back twice as much as they
fairly owed and the creditor received twice as

Regulation of the Currency 105

much as he fairly loaned. There can be no doubt
this is true of debts of long standing. But most
debts were not affected materially by the rise in
the value of gold, because they were not contract-
ed at its bottom value, but at various grades of
value while it was on the ascending movement.
However as long as it was rising the creditor class
was reaping an unjust advantage over the debtors.
The government issued bank notes; some based on
silver and some on gold; each kind redeemable in
the metal on which it was based. The quantity of
this paper money was regulated by the national
legislature so as to insure a circulation in propor-
tion to the volume of business. The extended use
of bank checks has furnished a substitute for or
supplement to the currency. When the currency
question was finally felt to be settled, the condi-
tions were practically accepted and the producing
class was set to work, and in an incredibly short
time, replaced the wealth that had been abstracted
from them and more. Then came an era of specu-
lation and the scattering of wealth. Obligations
rashly incurred in flush times, had to be met when
times became tight. This led to panics and the
whole routine had to be repeated about so often.
But panics could not be entirely eliminated by
doctoring the currency, because currency is not the
only factor. No matter how much currency a man
has, he is not likely to buy articles he does not
want. If mechanics have spent their time in tlip
production of something the public do not require
or a surplus of what they do ordinarily require,
there will be difficulty in disposing of the product.

106 The Lunarian Professor

If two classes of mechanics each make things with
the expectation of selling them to the other class,
and they turn out to be such things as are not
wanted in either case, there is sure to be stagna-
tion of exchange and consequent suffering. Where
all are working in ignorance of the requirements
of others there are sure to be produced many
things for which there will be no demand. This
had been partially recognized by the government
in your day and commissioners were appointed to
collect statistics and make estimates in regard to
the production of and probable demand for cer-
tain farm products. As the government became
more intimately the servant of the people its ser-
vices in this direction were greatly extended and
inquiries covered many other departments beside
that of farming. The government itself became a
large consumer in operating its railroads, tele-
graphs etc. Additional mileage had to be con-
structed to meet the growing business besides the
renewals on account of wear and tear. By the
publication in advance of the probable demands
on the various sorts of industry it became possi-
ble to estimate approximately what amount of and
what kind of product could be disposed of. A
still more fruitful source of financial trouble was
to be found in the spirit of recklessness and extrav-
agance with which people spent their money when
times were prosperous or booming. It seemed so
easy then to get money and to pay debts that
many thought it hardly worth while to do it, if
there appeared a chance for a profitable specula-
tion, and so instead of paying old debts they were

Socialism 107

very likely to incur fresh ones. But as the state
became more and more involved in business affairs,
it was able to advise what products would be in
demand, when it was advisable to use caution and
economy and when activity would be rewarded.
The functions of the state as a medium of exchange
between the producer and the consumer became
rapidly extended, and before the close of the cen-
tury it became the chief and in many things the
only buyer and seller of the products in most com-
mon use, as well as the sole factor in all monopolies
and in banking, insurance, and public amusements.
It had not yet gone into manufacturing or farm-
ing except to the extent necessary to prevent com-
binations and private monopolies."

*'I think I can see the advantage of this," said
I, **they probably held to the principle that compe-
tition is necessary to keep men up to their best in
exertion and industry."

**That is correct," he replied, ''until work be-
comes an instinct it is necessary to stimulate exer-
tion by the better rewards that extra industry can
procure. The socialists in your day proposed no
plan that calculated sufficiently upon the selfish-
ness of the individual. They expected that every-
body would accept the position assigned to him
and work faithfully for the good of all. But it
was too soon to expect this. Your race is very
young. It is not so long since your ancestors
ceased to depend on the spontaneous productions
of the earth for their sustenance, and began to sup-
plement them by their own exertions. With some
of your races work is beginning to be instinctive,

108 Tlie Lunarian Professor

but there are yet enough in every nation, who, by
their hereditary aversion to exertion are ready to
shirk out of labor and make the burden of the in-
stinctively industrious intolerable. Your race is
too young yet, here at the close of the twentieth
century, to take on the purely instinctive social-
istic conditions as we Lunarians have them."

''You think then that socialism to be sucessful
must be instinctive as it is with the bees?'*

''To be permanently sucessful it must be found-
ed upon such an instinct for industry, that makes
it more agreeable for a person to work, than to be
idle, or to be merely amused. That is, the individual
must love work for the sake of the work rather
than for the reward that is to come after it. It
is indeed true that only the stimulation of the re-
w^ard at the end could ever have created or kept
up the habit of work until it became instinctive,
and it is true that if this reward at the end should
habitually cease to be realized to at least some
degree, the instinct for the work would in course
of time become undone — unwound as we might say.
The expectation of the reward if it is as constant
as the work, would naturally become a part of the
instinct. But there are often disappointments as
to the reward, while the work itself remains con-
stant, so that this part of the instinct learns to be
satisfied with smaller and smaller results until
finally the necessaries of painless existence in which
the working apparatus is kept in proper operat-
ing order are all the reward that the instinct re-
quires."

'*Then," said I, "in this supreme ideal of social-

Socialism 109

istic instinct, I understand you, that the individual
lays aside all expectation of personal enjoyment,
or the possession of anything in the way of lux-
uries or superfluities. It seems to me such an ex-
istence must be a very narrow one."

*'The possession of superfluities," said he, *'does
not contribute at all to enjoyment of life. That is
why they are superfluities. A luxury, however, is
something that gives or is supposed to give unac-
customed pleasure, and it presupposes conditions
or times in the ordinary life of the individual in
which he fails to get perfect returns of happiness
or satisfaction. But suppose there are no such
times or conditions, and that he has no possible
desire that his habitual work does not satisfy. Then
his work is his luxury and no diversion to any un-
accustomed function would procure so great a lux-
ury. As to such existence being narrow, it all
depends on the breadth of the work. If the work
is circumscribed, the life is narrow. If the work
is wide, diversified and conplicated, then so is
the life, whether it be accompanied by the elements
of contingency and uncertainty of mind as with
you or the assurance of settled and triumphant
success as with us.

All the same however true socialistic conditions
are not realized to a nearly perfect degree up to
this close of the twentieth century, although the
advance toward them has been what the conserva-
tives of your day would have regarded as alarm-
ing. In all cases where honest competition in the
production of anything can be maintained, it is the
policy of government to refrain from interference;

110 The Lunarian Professor

but if the articles produced are necessary to con-
sumers or are required as materials in the produc-
tion of other goods that are, and the manufacturers
of such things form trusts or combinations for the
purpose of increasing the price, the government ap-
points receivers for such business and has it operat-
ed long enough to ascertain the cost of producing
the article. The price is then fixed by the govern-
ment."

*'But what if the parties decline to sell at the
prices fixed by the state?"

**They do not decline unless they want to go out
of business," he replied, "because when the state
interferes in such cases it amounts to notice to the
parties that the state is ready, as an alternative,
to undertake the business itself, when it speedily
destroys extortion by furnishing the required pro-
duct at a fair price."

*'It would seem then," said I, *'that the state
has become a large factor in the business of the
country, and there has been a great centralization
of power."

"That is true," he answered, "there has been
a remarkable evolution and yet a perfectly natural
and logical one. The very first principle on which
a state is organized is the defense and protection
of all — the weaker as well as the stronger members —
against a common external foe. The second prin-
ciple which is easily derivable from the first is the
protection of the members of the society from each
other. Under this principle the weaker will be
protected from the stronger, first in his person,
second in his property. It was the theory of many

Socialism 111

in all former times that the functions of the state
ought to end there. Some said, that to go any
further would contravene the wholesome natural
law of selection, and interfere against the survival
of the fittest. Nature left to herself, would put
down and finally exterminate the weakest of the
race mentally and physically, leaving always the
strongest and best to survive, and so constantly
improve the race. But if that consideration were
to prevail there should never have been any protec-
tive organization of tribes and states in the first
place. If when a community were attacked each
individual ran away or hid as best he could, the
enemy would catch and destroy the less swift and
Strang and the less shrewd and wary, and so select
the best for survival. But under the organization,
they stand together, and if the enemy is beaten
off, the weak and inferior members are saved with
the best. The only consideration on which this is
right must be that the weaker members of the so-
ciety are worth more to the state than they cost,
tnd therefore to the extent that they are protected
by the organization they are selected by nature
in this roundabout way for survival, for the bene-
fit of the state.

The further defense of the weak against the
strong within the social organization, must be on
the same principle. And this principle having
been admitted there is no logical end to it short
of protection against every advantage the strong
or the superior or the more wary can possibly take
or attempt. In a civilized society the oppression
of the weak is no longer so much from personal

112 The Lxinarian Professor

violence or robbery, but it takes the more subtle
form of absorbing their wealth under forms of law
and business formulas, so that in such a society
the weak and unwary are valuable to produce
wealth, but are robbed of it, practically by a few.

If the state would get the benefit of the exer-
tions of its members, it must protect them from
these depredations, whether they are perpetrated
under the forms of highway robbery or of the laws
of trade. In short the protection of the individual
by the state cannot logically terminate till it pre-
vents everyone from acquiring property he has
not earned and rendered a fair equivalent for."

''Then ought it not also to protect society
against the extortions of anyone who would com-
pel it to pay too much for something he alone
could produce?"

''Of course that is included in the first."

"Well then, does not that imply also that the
state shall insure a fair return for the work of
every individual to himself?"

"No," said he, "that does not follow, unless
the individual performs such Avork as the communi-
ty wants. If a man is free to do as he likes, and
he must be, he may sometimes choose to do some-
thing of no use to anyone else. Then of course
no one else should be obliged to take the useless
thing and pay for it. But if a man has nothing
to do, the state should upon his application furnish
him employment and pay him for his work when
done under instructions."

Women s Mights 113

CHAPTER VII.
Women's Rights.

''I suppose there has been a change in the posi-
tion of women since my dayT'

"In politics and in business, there is now no
distinction on account of sex. A woman may be
president or governor of a state, a senator or judge.
Women are to be found in every department of
business, and are fully as successful as the men.
This materially disturbed the organization of the
family, as it was before your time. The man was
then the legal and often the actual head of the
family, and both the wife and the children were
supposed to be under his authority within certain
limits. But as the sphere of woman extended and
she became better educated, she soon passed the
condition in which she was content to be subor-
dinate to the man. She insisted upon and of course
secured a position of equality as to legal rights and
equal authority in the family. In your day the
principal occupation of women was in domestic
life, keeping the house and rearing the children.
As women became interested in wider activities,
many of them began to seek ways of avoiding fami-
ly cares. Co-operative house-keeping was tried in
many cases, kindergartens taking charge of the
children.

114 The Lunarian Professor

The state had for a long time asserted an in-
terest in the education of children, first providing
the means of education, then making it compulsory.
Finding that some Avere kept from school from the
inability of parents to provide books, the state pro-
vided books to those who needed them. Then be-
cause the pride of those who accepted this bounty,
was wounded by this advertisement of their pover-
ty, it became necessary for the state to furnish
books to all children, both of the rich and the poor.
Next it was found that want of suitable clothe?;
kept some from school that ought to attend, and
so the state commenced to supply school clothes to
them and by a similar process of evolution finally
came to supply a school uniform to all children. It
was also perceived that the interest of the state in
the individual did not end when it had taught hiia
the three R's and the two G's; in fact it had only
fairly begun. It was all important to the state to
know whether the child she had educated was go-
ing to employ his talents for good or for ill. It
w^as expected he would carve his way and make
his living, but if he were not given an opportuni-
ty to learn an honest vocation, was it certain that
he would not drift into a dishonest one? It w^as
seen to be the duty of the state to see that every
youth of both sexes were given such opportunity
to learn some trade or occupation. This became
the more necessary on account of the trades unions
and combinations amongst working men who nat-
urally were anxious to prevent their ranks from
being crowded and jealously threw obstacles in
the way of apprentices, so the state found it neces-

Women's Rights llS

sary to care for the individual until he had attain-
ed the equipment essential for his self support.

At first the state schools of trades were simp-
ly free to all; later they became compulsory, fol-
lowing the experience of the common schools.
Scholars in the common school were educated with
reference to the trade they fancied, and when they
entered the trade school they were on trial for a
limited period and were sorted according to their
ascertained aptitudes. It became a necessary branch
of the supervision of the state to ascertain the
proper proportion of workmen required for each
branch of business and when this proportion was
being seriously disturbed by unequal selection by
the scholars themselves, it was restored by state
selection on examination according to aptitude.

So much of the care and education of the youth
having thus been assumed by the state, the way
was opened for more. It was said that half the
people who had children did not know how to bring
them up properly; and teachers often complained
that the example in bad manners, deportment, lan-
guage etc., that the children got at home to a
great extent neutralized the good lessons in these
things they received at school.

The kindergartens became by almost insensible
degrees enlarged in the scope of their functions.
At first, as in your day, they were merely stopping
places for the children during the day, they going
back to their parents to spend the night. As the
mothers came to be more and more engrossed in
affairs avv^ay from home, the kindergartens extend-

116 The Lunarian Professor

ed their care over the children, furnishing them
their meals, then their lodging, then medical at-
tendance as well as education and amusement, final-
ly assuming all the care and expense of maintain-
ing and rearing them. At first the expense was
paid by the parents, but was gradually assumed
by the state by degrees till it finally became re-
sponsible for all. 'The advantage of these public
nurseries was at first of course most marked in
favor of the poorer classes. But as their functions
and scope developed, the care and training of the
children became more scientific, their powers, tastes
and aptitudes were more thoroughly brought out.
The wealthier classes at first objected to having
their children reared in association with the pie-
bians. But the children of plebians w^ere no longer
plebian when removed permanently from the in-
fluences of their parent's homes; and they turned
out a larger percentage of successful men and
women than those of more comfortable position. In
physical and mental ability they were superior, and
in moralit}^ at least equal to the others. It was
seen that these kindergartens were better adapted
for the care of children than even the better equip-
ped homes, and they received the patronage of a
constantly increasing proportion of the people. At
first there was nothing compulsory in this patron-
age. Parents left their children when it suited
them, and took them away when they chose. But
after a time this was outgrown. It came gradual-
ly to be understood that the state — that is the
whole community — was really as mucli concerned
in the destiny of the growing generation as the

The Family 11*^

parents; and it was said that it was better that
the children should have the constant care and at-
tention of those intelligently qualified and perfect-
ly equipped, than that their development should
be interrupted when the caprice of parents craved
them only for pets and playthings. So the selfish-
ness of parents in this respect was gradually out-
grown in favor of the more important welfare of
the children. But economy as well as sentiment
supported this evolution. The cost of caring for
the children by the state was vastly less than un-
der the old system, and it no longer fell with such
crushing weight on those least able to bear it; for
it was notorious that the poor were the most proli-
fic. With the better care they received the mor-
tality amongst the children was greatly reduced
and a far greater proportion reached maturity.
Another important consideration in the state nur-
sery system was the cultivation of the democratic
sentiment amongst the children, and the destruc-
tion oi exclusiveness and aristocratic ideas and
feelings.

'^From what you say," said I, ''it appears that
the state has undertaken to take care of the race
during their age of helplessness, from infancy to
manhood."

*-That is correct," he answered, ''the state takes
the child as soon as it is weaned, sometimes be-
fore, and keeps and provides for it every day till
it is prepared to be selfsupporting. Every one is
taught a trade or a profession according to its
bent and the demand for services in the several
callings, it being the policy of the state to so reg-

118 The Lunarian Professor

ulate these things that the value of services is
about the same in all callings."

*'Then can a mechanic make as much as a doc-
tor?"

*' About the same. As soon as any difference is
observed, more are encouraged to enter the call-
ing that tends to the higher pay, and so made to
preserve the uniformity."

"Well, if the state begins when the child is
weaned, to take care of it, w^hy should it not be-
gin before — a long time before in fact? For ante-
natal influences are often of the most powerful
kind ; and when they are mischievous, no amount
of subsequent education is able to neutralize or
rectify them. That was all thought out in my day
by the more advanced thinkers."

*'0 they have ** maternity hospitals" and
** Homes for Ladies" and all that sort of things —
of course — but what you mean; not yet. That is
still in the future — but we shall find it by and by
in a way that will surprise you."

*'Well it seems to me, to get even where they
are they must have met and solved some rather
difficult riddles," said I. "For example in my day
there was a desperate struggle between Prostetants
and Catholics in regard to the religious education of
the children. The Catholics hated the public schools,
because they were "godless." They insisted on hav-
ing their children brought up in their own faith.
They wanted a share of the public money so thej-
could have schools of their own and mix their cat-
echism with the rules of grammar and the rule of

Progress in the Church 119

three. How did they ever settle this difficulty — or
did they settle it?"

**0 yes," he said, **they settled it, or rather it
settled itself. At first the Catholics and in some
places the Lutheran^ and other sects of Protestants
insisted on maintaining their own schools, kindergar-
tens etc., but the state institutions were so far
superior to what these sectarians could furnish,
that the laity broke av/ay from the control of
their priests in this respect and followed their in-
terests in putting their children under the care of
the state. As however the state monopolized more
and more of the pupils' time, it was conceded
that if the whole population was not to become
** godless," it would be necessary to allow religion
to be taught in these public institutions in some
form. So they compromised. The different reli-
gious bodies were allowed to hold Sunday schools
and classes for religious instruction of the pupils
in the creeds professed by their parents. The chil-
dren were also taken to church according to the
same rule. This was at first made compulsory if
desired by the parents, but after a time compul-
sory attendance upon religious instruction was
remitted at the age of 12 and the pupils were al-
lowed to choose their religion. This arrangement
preserved the proportions of the sects to each
other fairly well, but in the meantime there arose
conditions that made this preservation of small
moment. These were such changes in the spirit
and feeling of the members of different churches
toward each other, and such a liberalizing of creeds
that all were brought together and became not only

1"^0 The Lunarian Professor

tolerant, but even cordial toward each other. The
schools themselves did more than anything else to
bring about this result, for as the older scholars
were given their freedom of choice, it gradually
became a fashion or fad amongst the pupils and
finally a part of the regular curriculum to attend
each other's meetings and interchange ideas and
arguments. As the ability grew amongst all, both
the young and old, to reason more justly and logic-
ally, all sides became less tenacious of the dog-
mas they found themselves unable to prove. When
these were lopped off from the various conflicting
creeds their professors found themselves all stand-
ing on practically the same platform of facts and
plain human duties. The things they differed on
were mostly mere h}T)otheses. They still continued
to differ, but no longer regarded their differences
of such vital consequence as formerly. It came to
be generally admitted as absurd that the future
post mortem condition of men should depend on
their intellectual convictions regarding unprovable
metaphysical theories."

*' Doubtless the bringing together of the chil-
dren of all creeds and educating them in each
others notions had much to do with this liberaliz-
ing process; had it not?" I asked.

**It had of course, but the education of the
children together, was itself a result of a liberal-
ized public opinion. The fact is the human mind
was constantly undergoing a process of expansion
and growth. It could no longer be satisfied with
the crude and childish notions of former genera-
tions, and was outgrowing them as children out-

Progress in the Church 121

grow the fables of the nursery. Until men got
capacity, argument and logic were of no avail. Ed-
ucation in the great facts and discoveries of science
and philosophy gave them capacity/'

**From what you say, I should suppose there
has been a great modification of creeds?*'

''There has been. No church remains the same
either in theory or practice that it was in your day.
Several of the minor protestant sects have entirely
disappeared.

In several cases two or three have united to
form one. The whole number of sects is less than
one-fourth of what it was. Creeds have become
extremely simplified and in many cases practi-
cally ignored. The government among the protest-
ant sects, is in most cases congregational and
democratic. They no longer engage in missionary
work for the conversion of the heathen, as there
are no longer any heathen whose conversion is de-
sired ; and no organized effort is necessary for char-
itable work at home, because that is amply pro-
vided for by the state. But the church is useful
as a social organization, promoting personal friend-
ships and associations, providing intellectual and
educational entertainment for its members foster-
ing and fortifying the moral virtues and elevating
and refining the manners. In many of these pro-
testant congregations, the worship of God by pray-
er and ceremony is entirely discontinued, it being
held that all worship is unworthy, and based upon
a false notion of the relationship between God and
man. Man they say cannot w^orship or serve God
directly. God is not childish enough to wane it.

122 The Lunarian Professor

All man can do is to help his fellow man and him-
self and that constitutes his whole duty."

"These," said I, ''would probably have been
called free thinkers or agnostics in my day. But
what of the Catholics?"

''The Catholics," he replied, "are far more
numerous than the Protestants. Forty years ago
there was a great schism in the Catholic church,
the American branch of it separating completely
from the European, and setting up for itself as the
"American Catholic Church." At the same time
important changes were made in the interpretation
of the doctrines of the church and radical innova-
tions in its government. The latter is now largely
republican in form and the laity have representa-
tion in the councils of the church and a prepond-
erating influence both in its doctrine and its tem-
poral policy. The tendency toward this develop-
ment showed itself strongly in the beginning of the
twentieth century, and originated from the gen-
eral increase of intelligence and feeling of person-
al assertion and responsibility among the laity and
the example of the freer people about them. The
clergy instinctively resisted this tendency, and
called upon the Pope and the European church to
help them to stop it. The help they afforded only
stimulated the movement. The interference of the
Europeans was resented as impertinent; the exer-
cise of the papal authority was looked on as a dis-
play of superannuated tyranny. The Pope asserted
that the American Church by its liberal practices
and tendencies was corrupting the church in other
parts of the world, and declared they were doing

progress in the Church 123

it more damage as members, than they could do as
open enemies outside of its pale, and he threatened
to excommunicate the whole American body. The
immediate cause of the final act of separation was
first the persistence of the laity in having the own-
ership of the church property in their own hands,
represented by trustees of their own selection. Sec-
ond, their demand to share in the government of
the church, to which end they proposed a represen-
tative legislature composed of two houses, one com-
posed of laymen and the other of clergy.

Third they asserted the right of private judg-
ment without prejudice to their standing as Catho-
lics, on all questions of mere faith, except the car-
dinal principle of Christianity, requiring only the
observance of the sacraments and the practice of
charitable works and a moral life.

They repudiated auricular confession. These
innovations were not all consumated at once, but
the controversy once begun, found no logical settle-
ment short of these demands and the rupture of the
church. Liberalized in this way in regard to creed
and government, and freed from the domination of
the Italians, but retaining much of the ancient rit-
ual and the pomp of public worship, the American
Church, became very popular, and soon received
large accessions of membership from the protestant
bodies. In fact the more conservative and spiritual
protestants found the new catholic church more
congenial to them than the new protestant. The
former church advanced toward them as the latter
drifted away into rationalism.

124 The Lunarian Professor

CHAPTER VIII.
Marriage and Divorce.

''You said that the occupations of women be-
came varied and ceased to be domestic in a major-
ity of cases; what effect did that have on marriage
and divorce?" I enquired.

"Various causes tended to make marriage al-
most universal and celibacy became the rare ex-
ception. The chief cause was the assumption by
the state of the care and education of the children.
Another was the ability of women to support them-
selves. Men did not feel it such a burden to be
married when they did not have to greatly exert
themselves for the support of either wife or chil-
dren. Women did not feel it such a burden when
they were released from the care and responsibility
of a household of children and servants. Marriage
moreover has become less of a lottery than in your
day, because men and women meet each other in
business relations in which they act their natural
selves. Neither is obliged to marry in order to
live,, and less art and deceit are used for the pur-
pose of entrapping a partner. The property of
neither man nor woman is affected by marriage,
and neither acquires any rights over the property
of the other except, that each is bound to care and
provide for the other in case of sickness or disabil-
ity. There are fewer conditions that are liable to

Marriage and Divorce 125

produce inharmony, because greater freedom is
conceded to the parties, and there are fewer points
on which absolute unanimity is essential. ]\Iarriage
is on the whole much happier than formerly, and
although divorces are easily obtained they are much
less frequent. These conditions have had a marked
effect on the increase of population as you might
suppose. There is no longer any temptation to
avoid the natural results of marriage, and those
unnatural expedients women formerly resorted to
for that purpose, ruinous to health and morals, are
now almost unknown. The health and strength of
women have vastly improved. Women dress sen-
sibly, and live natural hygienic lives, and the ter-
rors of childbearing have practically vanished. As
Americans took upon themselves the furnishing of
native born citizens to people this country, immi-
gration from Europe fell off rapidly and practical-
ly ceased sixty years ago. But notwithstanding
this, the population has more than doubled three
times, and for the territory that formed the United
States in your day it is now over 600,000,000,"

**Six hundred millions!" I repeated. **AVhat ai*
enormous number! It takes my breath to think
of it. Is it possible so many people can be sup-
ported in that territory? Nearly all the really
valuable land seemed to be taken up when the
population was but 70,000,000."

**Aye," said he, **six hundred millions are easi-
ly supported, and supported in greater comfort than
when the population was but 70,000,000; and they
may even double several times more before the
capacity of the country is exhausted."

126 The Lunarian Professor

"I am amazed at what you say," said I, ''but
there must be a limit. Let me see, if 600,000,000
are- doubled three times it will amount to 4,800,-
000,000. Is it possible the- land could produce food
and clothing for so many; and yet from what you
say about the rate of increase that enormous num-
ber of people will be in this country before the end
of the tw^enty-first century.''

*'\Ye will not cross that bridge till w^e come to
it," he answered, "we will explain that when w^e
come to look forward into the twenty-first century.
It is true we shall find a limit. The breeding in-
stinct of any race of animals, not excepting
man, would if unchecked and unopposed in the
course of time absolutely fill up the earth
till it could support no more. Man has for many
ages been the dominant animal of the earth. Yet
he has failed to stock the world to its capacity
or anywhere near it for reasons you can easily
supply yourself. In the first place the profession
of arms or the art of keeping down the popula-
tion by war has always held the most honorable
rank among human employments; second the hu-
man race has been the absolutely helpless victim
of pestilence and plague. Hundreds of different
kinds of microbes, vibrios, bacteria and zymases
have from age to age apparently whenever they
saw fit, or thought men were getting too numer-
ous, unseen and unsuspected, planted their colonies
in their vital organs, and swarmed in their blood,
living at their expense and sweeping them to death
by myriads and millions. Next, men w^ere at the
mercy of the elements both on sea and land. AVhen-

Geographical Changes 127

ever a crop failed from drought or Hood there
followed a famine, and millions were periodically
swept away by gaunt starvation, because there was
no way of conveying to a needy district, the super-
abundance that might exist in another. But even
where all nature was favorable, and nations hap-
pened to be at peace there v/as always the native
and hereditary stupidity of the individual that
blinded him to all rational ways of taking care of
himself or his dependents and made it impossible
for him to rear to maturity more than one out of
five of his children. Thus many causes conspired
to kill people off almost as fast as they were born
and sometimes faster, and many times to prevent
them from being born when they ought to have
been. These inimical causes have all practically
been eliminated. The destructive agencies supplied
by nature for limiting the increase of the popula-
tion having been set at defiance by art, it is evi-
dent that art must likewise find a v/ay for limit-
ing the increase of population, or else sometime in
the future that increase will by its very success
put a stop to itself, and the brutal methods of un-
tamed nature again assert themselves. After all,
art is only a subdivision of nature. It may modi-
fy the action of nature as to details, but cannot
set aside the principles that govern it."

''You spoke a little while ago of the territory
of the United States, as it was in my day. This
V70uld appear to intimate that the boundaries have
changed since then, is that so?"

''Well yes, you will think so, when you know
that the United States of the present day covers

i28 The Luniarian Profcssoi'

the entire Continent of North America, and em-
braces besides, New Zealand, Australia, the Eng-
lish Colonies in South Africa, Ireland, Cuba and
most of the AVest India Islands, and numerous
islands in the Pacific ocean. I see this astonishes
you and I will proceed to tell you how it happen-
ed. If we begin at the beginning, it appears to
have been very largely due to the construction of
railroads in Asia by the Russians; that is it, would
never have happened if these roads had not been
built. The great transcontinental Siberian road
was completed from St. Petersburg to Vladivo-
stock on the Pacific ocean in 1904 and formally
opened with a great flourish by the Rsusian em-
peror. The Russians were not entirely satisfied
however with this road. It was essential as a mil-
itary road, and as a means of settling a vast ex-
tent of fertile country in Siberia, but as a com-
mercial line it did not meet their rather sanguine
expectations.

Their ambition was to monopolize the trade be-
tween China and Europe. The new road by going
around the east side of Mantchooria instead ot
through it to Pekin, imposed on that trade an un-
neccessary transportation of 1800 miles. They
saw directly that they needed a line to Pekin
and Teentsin, from Irkutsk. They obtained a con-
cession from the Chinese government and built
this line for commercial purposes. Then, later,
they found it desirable to build another line west
of the first and reaching the ocean at Shanghai.
They also tapped the western part of the Chinese
empire by a line from Bokara.

Geographical Changes 129

From these lines others soon grew, command-
ing the business of the country and mostly owned
by the Russians. In no long time jealousy of the
enterprising "foreign devils" on the part of some
of the more conservative and reactionary of the
Chinese, led to outrages on their part which furn-
ished a good pretext for military occupation of
the country and finally to its conquest and annexa-
tion by the Russians. These encroachments of the
Russians had been bitterly, but ineffectually op-
posed by the English. Their opposition provoked
the Russians to place England on the defensive
with regard to her Indian possessions so they
pushed their railway line through Tartary to the
very borders of northwestern India and threaten-
ed it with a large army of invasion. The Hindoos
who had for years been waiting for such an op-
portunity to throw off the British yoke now re-
volted. They had been taught the art of war by
their masters and now practiced it upon them,
turning upon their teachers the weapons they had
put into their hands and taught them to use. The
very soldiers that were counted on to repel the
Russians took their side against the English. Be-
tween the Russians and the Indians the British
power in India was totally crushed, and several
independent kingdoms were set up under Russian
protection. France also assisted Russia in this
war, especially on the ocean. British commerce
was almost destroyed by Russian and French
cruisers. After the war was over these two na-
tions almost monopolized the Indian trade under
discriminating commerce regulations, the Russians

130 The Lunarian Professor

by land carriag:e over their railway and the French
by sea. In the end the Eussians became masters
of almost the whole of Asia. Turkey was dis-
membered, the city of Constantinople and all
Asiatic Turkey falling" to the Russians."

** Professor, in my day there was a great war
between Russia and Japan, which you have not
mentioned. "Was it not a factor in the settlement
of the Asiatic questions?"

**No, it did not assist in making a settlement,
for none was made, its only effect was to postpone
a settlement. The events I have narrated were
greatly to the advantage of the United States.
The destruction of England's commerce largely in-
volved her manufacturers also, and in like degree
made room for and stimulated those of the United
States. Her trade with all the British Colonies
soon eclisped that of the mother country herself.
As the tremendous natural resources of the United
States became more and more developed under the
energy and skill of the most enlightened methods,
the contrast between America and England en-
forced itself on the attention of all.

Treaties looking to the abolition of war, and
the settlement of all international questions by
arbitration had already been adopted between the
United States and Great Britain and her Col-
onies, and there had been a strong feeling and
agitation for a closer political union of all the Eng-
lish speaking people. The aggressive foreign poli-
cy of England stood in the way of this. But to
her, this aggressive policy appeared essential. She
had held India, Birmah and large territories in

Geographical Changes 131

Africa, by conquest, and her trade to these coun-
tries depended on her continued military control
over them.

After the war with Eussia and France in which
she lost India, her commerce, and her prestige,
England still felt her only chance for retaining her
importance as an influential factor in the politics
of the world, to be in cultivating her interests in
Birmah and Africa. She could colonize neither
of these countries to any great extent. All she
could do was to conquer and rule them and com-
pel them to trade with her on terms that turned
all their surplus wealth into her coffers — as she
had done in India. Her misfortunes had soured
her temper and made her more truculent and bull-
dozing than ever. Her manner towards her colo-
nies changed. They had been of little or no as-
sistance to her in her struggle with Russia, and
had but little sympathy with her foreign policy
and the truculent and aggressive bearing towards
weaker nations that had made her to be thorough-
ly unpopular in some parts of the world. England
now began to resent the cold attitude of the colo-
nies toward her, and to talk of the duty of the
daughters towards the mother. She began to be
sorely pinched for money. The war had doubled
her already enormous debt, and halved her re-
sources. The number of her unemployed at home
had greatly increased by reason of the diminution
of her trade and the foreign demand for her manu-
facturers. Taxation enormously increased and th'i
rich were reduced to poverty in providing for the
poor. Millions emigrated to America and to the

133 The Lunarian Professor

colonies, g:cnerally people of the thrifty and pro-
ductive classes, thereby reducing the resources of
the country without diminishing her liabilities.
She now proposed to the colonies to tax themselves
for her benefit. This they were not inclined to do.
They were all comparatively poor. They needed
all the money they could raise for public improve-
ments in their own settlements. Most of them were
heavily in debt. Canada was hopelessly so, practi-
cally bankrupt in fact. Finally the colonies all
declined to be taxed for the benefit of the mother
country. The condition of affairs in the British
empire gave a great impulse to the idea of con-
federation with the United States. The plan gain-
ed favor rapidly with the colonies. No nation on
earth was so prosperous then, or possessed of such
vast resources as the United States. The country
was out of debt and enormously wealthy.

Her army was small, but she had a powerful
navy. She was respected by all the world and had
great influence, as much from her fairness and
justice to other nations as from her known re-
served power and ability to enforce justice to her-
self. The British felt the need of an alliance that
would place them in the front rank of nations
again, and all the branches of the empire appeared
anxious for the consolidation with the United
States. This country was desirous of obtaining
Canada, and this made it the more ready to adopt
the union, because it was supposed it must be witli
all or none. As this country was by far the most
populous number of the proposed union, it was
conceded that Washington should be the capital

Geographical Changes

133

of the new empire. The constitution of the United
States was taken as the basis of the new govern-
ment with certain modifications. The President
and Vice President were to be elected by direct
vote of the people, a plurality to elect. They were
to serve six years only. They could not both be
from the same continent or state. The President
was not to have the veto power. The Representa-
tives were to be 600 in number apportioned among
the states according to population. The senate
was to consist of 100 members elected by the peo-
ple. The term of office for both houses was to
be two years. Each natural division as a con-
tinent or island or group of islands was to be divid-
ed into senatorial districts following state boun-
daries when practicable, but throwing together
small states or fractions of large ones when neces-
sary to give the proper quota of population. All
bills were to originate in the House of Representa-
tives, but w^ere also to pass the senate before be-
coming laws; but that body could not alter or
amend— only veto or approve, and the House could
pass any bill in spite of the senate by a two thirds
vote. The President was to appoint his cabinet
with the approval of the senate, but all or any
one was to be required to resign upon a vote of
^Svant of confidence" by the House of Representa-
tives. Both the President and Vice President
could be removed from office by a two-thirds vote
of both House and senate and a new election or-
dered to fill the unexpired term.

There was to be free trade amongst all the
states under this constitution and also between

134 The Lunarian Professor

these states and foreign nations except that a
tariff on importations might be imposed when or-
dered by a three-fourths vote of the Congress. The
general revenue was to be collected by the Coun-
ty Commissioners and Treasurers of the counties
of the several states, such officers being for such
purpose, officers of the general government, and
levying such rate of tax as ordered by the law of
Congress in addition to the taxes ordered by htc
state, county, city, ward, or school district authori-
ties.

Suffrage was to be restricted to men and
women who could read and write the English
language. Foreign immigrants were not to be
permitted to settle in colonies in any of the states
or to maintain public schools — except high schools
— in which any other than the English language is
used.

No state could engage in aggressive foreign
Avar, but might repel invasion. Only the general
government could engage in war.

This scheme of government was prepared by a
joint commission appointed for the purpose, and
submitted to the people of the several countries in-
terested, the British Colonies, each separately, Eng-
land, Ireland, the United States and Scotland. All
the colonies, the United States and Ireland voted
for the plan; England and Scotland voted against
it. They were dissatisfied with the provision pro-
hibiting them from going to war. They had al-
ways enjoyed this luxury and were loth to be de-
prived of it. They had hoped tlie plan of union
would allow them to pursue their schemes of set-

Geographical Changes

I6d

tlement and annexation as before with the right
to call on the confederation for succor in case they
were hard pressed by foreign enemies. They argu-
ed indeed that actual active assistance would never
in any probable event be required, because with
the mere moral support of such formidable back-
ing they felt sure that almost any nation would
put up with any amount of insult and injury rath-
er than resent it against such odds.

It was supposed by many that the failure of
Great Britain to ratify the general constitution
would defeat the whole scheme. But the colonies
and Ireland had become very much in favor of it,
and hated to be balked by what they termed the
selfish action of the mother country; and they de-
manded her consent to the union, of as many as
might choose to join it without her. She was in
no condition to resist their demands if they should
choose to enforce them. But it would have been
folly to have come to blows or even to words over
such a question. The colonies had never been a
source of profit to England, but rather a bill of
expense. She traded with them, but did not pos-
sess a monopoly of their trade, and paid their
tariff dues the same as other people. The United
States enjoyed a larger trade with Canada than
she, and had almost driven her out of the trade
with several of her own West India Islands. What-
ever the position might be that she held with refer-
ence to this commerce, it would not be made worse
by this proposed union, but rather better, for free
trade would take the place of tariffs. She would
also enjoy free trade with the United States, which

136 The Lunarian Professor

alone was worth to her a dozen colonies. The
union of England with her colonies was chiefly
one of sentiment. They governed themselves ac-
cording to their own ideas, and w^ere practically
so many independent nations, which she was in
sentiment bound to protect when they got into
trouble, but which had little or nothing to give
her in return for her maternal solicitude and wor-
ry. Their relationship to her tended to make them
impertinent and presumptuous in their intercourse
with other nations. Canada in particular by her
bumptiousness had more than once come very near-
ly involving her in ruinous war with the United
States, in which her loss would have been the des-
truction of her commence, and her only gain, the
loss of her pert colony. All these points were dis-
cussed by the English. It was urged that if Brit-
ain tried to keep the Colonies against their will,
the time would surely come when she w^ould have
to give them up against hers. They recalled the
Controversy with the United States and reflected
how much better it would have been for England
if she had permitted them to go off as friends
rather than enemies. And they averred that if she
should give her cordial approbation to the new
union and send off the colonies with the maternal
blessing to join their big brother Jonathan, it
would go far toward curing the unfilial, but not
entirely causeless feeling of bitterness he had en-
tertained for her since 1776 and 1812.

As a result of all these reflections and many
more of the same sort, the conclusion was finally
reached and the parliament gave its solemn sane-

Geographical Changes 137

tion to the new State, but with characteristic fore-
sight exacted one promise to which all the states
acceded before the final act was consummated, and
that was, that the said new nation should forever
be the friend of Great Britain and in case her
existence as a nation were threatened it should
be bound to interpose in her behalf, and if neces-
sary take up arms in her defense. The name pro-
posed for the new nation was the *'Pan Anglic
Union." When England failed to ratify, *'Pan"
was dropped, and the name became simply the
*' Anglic Union." But it was playfully nicknamed
the "Lion's Cubs," the ''Old Hen's Chickens" etc.

'^When did these things happen," I inquired.

**They were finished by the year 1950," he re-
plied.

*'Did not the various states have to do con-
siderable remodeling of their forms and precedure
to fit them for this consolidation?'*

*'Very little, their governments were all much
like that of the United States. Like this country,
they had already turned over to the control of the
state all monopolies, such as railroads, and had
reached the same conclusions as to money, the
suffrage, taxation and most other questions. They
had their legislatures and executive and judicial
branches of government, all about alike. Ireland
had for a decade or more enjoyed home rule. She
came into the new Union as two states, Ulster and
South Ireland. These were soon afterward recon-
solidated into one — Ireland — the causes that led to
their separation, viz, religious jealousy and the
teaching of religion in the schools having been

138 The Lunarian Professor

eliminated by the severance of all connection be-
tween church and state, which the new constitution
required.

The new nation had hardly got settled down to
business, before new annexations and consolida-
tions were proposed and after much hesitation and
reflection were agreed to. Mexico, Central Amer-
ica and Japan proposed to come into the Union,
and shortly after Chili and Argentine made appli-
cation for admission. The fact is that in forming
the "Anglic Union" the promoters were building
far more than they realized. Time had without
their knowing it reached a new epoch, and was
about to turn over a new leaf. ]\Ien were becom-
ing educated and mentally developed by strides
instead of inches, by moles instead of molecules.
In forming the "Anglic Union" they had given
expression to a new feeling into which mankind
was just being born, a feeling of human brother-
hood, a new instinct that drew^ men together and
acquainted them with the fact that they were all
the result of common natural causes and animat-
ed by common loves and hopes and 'fears. It show-
ed them they were not naturally and necessarily
enemies, but might and ought to be friends and
mutually helpful to each other. It was the begin-
ning of the end of war, the epoch of peace and
good will.

When they began to think of taking other than
English speaking nations into the "Anglic Union,"
it was at once perceived that the name was inade-
quate, and so was the constitution. The name was
changed to "The Great Union" and the constitu-

Geographical Changes 139

tion was amended in regard to the official lan-
guage so far as the non-English speaking nations
were concerned. English however was to be taught
in these nations and it has gradually superseded
the other languages. Schools have everywhere
been established, and the church has been rigidly
separated from the state. The state protects the
church, but contributes nothing to its support, nor
does it compel any unwilling citizen to contribute
to its support by the exemption of its property
from its due proportion of taxation."

''Have any other nations joined the Great
Union up to the present time besides those you
have mentioned?"

''None others have been admitted into full
membership as equal states, but all the states of
South America have been taken under the pro-
tection of the "Great Union." They are being
settled and developed by northern people and
the native population gradually educated up to
the required standard. The equatorial climate is
naturally unfavorable to enterprise, and develop-
ment proceeds slowly. The church has been a seri-
ous obstacle, claiming time and attention of the
natives that ought to be devoted to business and
education. The country is being covered with
railv/ays by northern enterprise. The most import-
ant of these is the great international road extend-
ing from the city of Mexico through Central Amer-
ica and the isthmus of Darien and traversing the
whole length of South America, even into Patago-
nia. Branches from this trunk diverge toward all
important points and enormous progress has been

140 TJlc Lunarian Professor

made in agriculture and mining. The resources of
this continent furnish a vast support to the teem-
ing population of North xVmerica.

Mention of these railways led me to inquire
of the Professor concerning the progress of trans-
portation, and commerce and whether any radical
innovations had been introduced.

"All the old methods of transportation," said
he, ''have been greatly improved upon, but none
of them entirely superseded. Flying machines have
been brought to a reasonable degree of perfection
at the expense of much thought and many experi-
ments, many fortunes and many broken necks.
But they cannot take the place of the freight car
or the steamship. They are more rapid, easily
making 100 to 150 miles an hour, but they are as
yet of limited capacity carrying light letter mails,
and a few passengers, but at too great an expense
to compete with the improved rail and water car-
riage of the present. Besides most people would
rather be near the ground in case of accident. I
mentioned to you the greatly reduced cost of rail-
way transportation in North America where all
the lines are operated by the state. In most of
the South American states, the roads are merely
controlled — not owned — by the state and there is
active agitation in favor of the annexation of these
states to the Great Union, in anticipation in part
of the advantage that will be obtained by the state
control of roads that will follow.

The most beneficant service that the flying
machine has rendered is its potent contribution
toward the abolition of war. Men have indeed been

Geographical Changes 141

tapidly educated out of the spirit and habit of
war, but the flying machine simply prohibited it.
Without it, an age of peace would undoubtedly
have been reached in the future, with it, the age
of peace is here. International warfare is at an
end and probably forever."

**I don't quite see how," said I,

"It is very easy. One of these machines can
carry enough dynamite, gun cotton and other de-
structive explosives to devastate a city of 100,000
inhabitants. It can at will, fly over any place and
drop its deadly stuff precisely where it will do
the most execution. It can select the palace of
the king, the houses of parliament or congress, the
barracks, the citadel, or the magazine, or the thick-
ly peopled camp of a great army. It can do this
with little risk, deliberately, in broad daylight,
poised two or three miles above its victim out of
reach of practical gunnery; but in the night it can
drop death upon defenseless and unsuspecting
sleepers without a moments warning. Battle ships
are equally useless. A charge of dynamite dropped
from a flyer being able to reduce the greatest ship
to scrap iron and send it to the bottom in a mo-
ment. As personal armor became a useless encum-
brance, when gunpowder was introduced, so the
armoring of ships has entirely passed away in the
presence of the flying machine and naval warfare
is no more practicable than war or land."

*'I should think," said I, "that the "flyer"
could be converted into a dangerous instrument
for criminal use. AATiat's the reason pirates and
robbers could not sail down upon a community

142 The Lunarian Professor

small enough to be overpowered by them, and then
sail off again with their booty to some inaccessible
or solitary place?''

''That has been done," he answered, *'but it
is no longer easy. Whenever a fresh emergency
arises in human affairs, a fresh remedy is 'found to
meet it. It often brings its own remedy. The fly-
er is as great an agent in the hands of the police
as it is in the hands of the criminal. As to soli-
tary places, there are very few left on earth that
are habitable, and there is not a spot that has not
been seen by men, and that is not subject to police
surveillance."

''Then," said I, "they must have discovered
the north pole."

"Yes they have, and the south pole too," he
replied. "The first trip to the north pole was
made from Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska. The
party flew in a straight line from that point, in
midsummer, north over the pole and continuing
in almost the same direction to the south, reached
Hammerfest in Norway a distance of 3,000 miles in
fort}^ hours without stopping. Parties have gone
from Minneapolis by way of the north pole in an
air line to the town of Tomsk in Siberia a distance
of 5,500 miles, stopping at the pole twelve hours,
and finishing the journey within four days. These
trips have often been repeated and many similar
ones made. It is possible to make the circuit of
the earth in twelve days by means of relays at
certain continental points and on some of the
Pacific Islands; but it can also be made by rail
and water with onlv four chancres, two to rail and

Geographical Changes 143

two to steamer in fiteen to seventeen days. Rail-
roads run to Alaska reaching Bering Sea and the
Pacific at several points, and are met by corre-
sponding roads on the Russian side. The water
carriage in summer is only across Bering Strait,
but in winter on account of ice the passage is
made further south and is longer."

*'Why don't they tunnel Bering Strait/' I in-
quired, "or bridge it?"

**They will in the future tunnel it part way
and build a dam or embankment the rest of the
way," he replied, "and utilize the enormous power
of the current passing through there to drive the
trains 1,000 miles on each side of the strait, but
the time has not yet arrived. A bridge would not
stay there, it would be swept away by the ice."

"Isn't there danger of collision between these
flying machines?"

"Many fatal collisions took place when the fly-
ers were first introduced. It was found necessary
to regulate them by government supervision. The
routes between all points have been carefully laid
out and the going and returning paths separated
by a wide and safe space.

"You mentioned the abolition of war. I hard-
ly see how it could be while there were any unciv-
ilized nations on earth," I observed.

"I said international warfare was abolished."
he returned. "After Russia had taken possession
of Asia and settled its ownership, and Africa had
been divided up amongst the western European
nations, the governments of all nations were civil-
ized. The regulation of such barbarous subjects

144 The Lunarian Professor

as they mig:ht be responsible for, was simply a
question of policing, not war. An insurrection by
them could not succeed against the destructive
weapons held by the government. But as interna-
tional affairs are now settled, there is no excuse
for any responsible body of men to resort to force.
The principle of arbitration first adopted between
the United States and Great Britain was subse-
quently extended to all civilized nations. Later
there was framed for the guidance of Arbitrators
of international questions, an international consti-
tution or law of nations agreed to by treaty be-
tween the principal nations and finally ratified by
all. This constitution described the boundaries of
all nations, which it was agreed were not to be
disturbed except on consent of all the parties
concerned, thus doing away with wars for con-
quest.

A criminal code was enacted, by which all
crimes between subjects of different nations were
to be tried, and an international court was estab-
lished, composed of Judges from every nation.
"WTien a suit is brought before this court, those
judges appointed by the nations parties to the suit,
are excused from serving, and the case is tried by
the others. Questions of damages by one nation
and its decrees when finally reached are acquiesced
in without hesitation, besause it is keenly recogniz-
ed that any settlement even when not entirely
satisfactory, is preferable to war. In fact war is
not recognized as a practical method of settling
anything."

"If war is at an end, what have the European

Geographical CJimiges 145

Nations done with their great armies," I inquired.
''In my day most of the surplus wealth of those
nations went to support their vast armies, and the
masses of the industrial classes were kept in pover-
ty, because their earnings were so largely diverted
to that purpose. And yet there appeared to be
too many w^orkers, for their wages were very low.
If the soldiers were set to work at peaceful occu-
pations and married and raised families, the popu-
lation must have increased and the wages gone
still lower. How was that?"

''Well, not quite like that," he replied." "The
more workers the more w^ealth, provided they have
plenty of raw material to work on. The aboli-
tion of war gave a great impetus to the production
of wealth in Europe. A great demand was created
for raw materials, such as wool, cotton, timber,
iron and other metals and for food stuffs. A large
part of these supplies had to be furnished from
other countries. The United States furnished vast
quantities. This increased commerce, and as the
population increased, emigration was stimulated.
As the United States filled up, the emigration was
diverted from this country to South America and
to Africa. The products and exports of these
countries correspondingly increased. The equator-
ial regions are most prolific in all the products of
the soil. The temperate zones furnish the most
vigorous people for consuming these and turning
them into wealth. The relations between these
two regions are reciprocal and complemental rather
than competitive. Free trade was first established
in those directions and it soon forced itself in

146 The Lunarian Professor

others, until it became the rule the world ovei*.
The history of western Europe during the twen-
tieth century, is bound up with the development
and settlement of South America and Africa, es-
pecially the latter. Modern Africa is as much a
child of Europe as America is, and the native races
and tongues are being rapidly displaced by the
European. Population in Europe naturally increases
in a more rapid ratio than ever before, due
to the suppression of the ravages and waste of
war, the more scientific treatment of disease, and
control of epidemics, the greater comfort and pros-
perity of the people. But with their increased
possibilities for comfort have come, an increased
standard and expectation of life, so that it cannot
be said that the people are any better satisfied
with life than they were before. The struggles
are as intense and the disappointments as stinging
as ever. The incentives to emigration have not
diminished while facilities inducements and flatter-
ing prospects to the immigrant are vastly greater
than ever.

Europe is the great breeding ground for Afri-
ca, as it was formerly for North America. And
the human inundation that formerly poured itself
into the United States is diverted chiefly to Africa,
but in four fold volume."

''Surely," said I, *'the capacity of the earth
for supporting the human family must be almost
exhausted. It is sickening to contemplate the
suffering that will be entailed in the struggle for
existence that it seems to me must inevitably come
soon. Evidently from what you say, Europe must

Geographical Changes 14'J'

be about as full as it will hold. I suppose the
great migration you speak of represents the sur-
plus crop of folks that the continent must get rid
of in order to let those that remain live in tolera-
ble comfort. When Africa and South America get
to be as full as Europe and the United States, so
that they can no longer receive this tide of emigra-
tion, then what is to be done? For anything I can
see famine will have to sweep away some of the
race in order that the rest may exist, and after
all is that any better than war?"

''At any rate," said he, *'we have not reached
that yet. We have now reached the beginning of
the twenty-first century. The population of the
earth has reached the very considerable number
of 4,000,000,000 or almost three times what is was
in your day. Yet we concede a three fold increase
of that figure before starvation or some other re-
pressive agency will be necessary to stop the in-
crease of the population and that will only be
reached by the year 2070."

He here pulled out a pencil of curious make
and with his middle left hand dashed off some
strange looking characters on a blank space on
the profile. He was evidently figuring, for in a
moment he went on to say that he found that when
the 40,000,000 square miles of habitable land on
the earth were divided equally between 12,000,000,-
000 of people they would have about two acres
each.

'' I ventured to say, I did not think two acres
enough to furnish an individual with food, taking
his chances of bad seasons from droughts, floods

148 The Lunarian Professor

etc. Besides men could hardly live without tim-
ber and they could have none if all the land were
cultivated. Moreover, they must have animals to
furnish leather, wool etc., and land would be re-
quired for their sustenance.

Land must be also devoted to cotton, flax hemp
and so on for clothes etc. AVhen you allow for
such things as these, I said, I thought the area de-
voted to the production of food would not be much
over one acre to the individual by the year 2070,
if he was right about the number of people there
would then be.

*'You are only thinking of the crude methods
people had in your day of getting their food from
the earth," said he. ''They were at the mercy of
the uncontrolled action of natural forces and ac-
cidents. The rain and sunshine naturally falling
on an acre of land enabled them to raise so many
bushels of wheat or beans or carrots or beets. But
if the rain did not fall or the sun failed to shine
or there was too much rain or two much sunshine
or the weather was too cold or the wind too bois-
terous, the farmer was at the mercy of the fickle
elements and his crop a failure. In a few places
irrigation was practiced, men got a partial control
of the conditions, but these places were limited,
and the control incomplete.

If you will call to mind the information I have
given you of the artificial production of food and
other necessaries of existence among the Lunarians,
you will readily see that the resources of the earth
to sustain its population do not depend altogether
on the amount of land surface that men can culti-

Geographical Changes 14:9

vate to beets and potatoes — the amount on which
the sun shines and the rain falls. Surface you
must have of course for people to live and to move
on. But when you learn how to utilize it there is
material under every acre on an average, more
than sufficient for the sustenance of all the people
that could stand on it. The soil in which you
plant your seeds is nothing but the disintegrated
rock of a thin layer of the surface of the earth.
Below it are rocks of the same sort in quantities
enough to make millions of such soils. If you
knew how, you could make your food products out
of the soil directly instead of waiting for the
growth of plants in it, and if the soil should give
out you could make them from the rocks below.'*

''Yes," said I, ''but will mankind ever find out
how to do this! Will you wise and experienced
Lunarians show us?

"No, it is not necessary that we should. You
will find it out fast enough yourselves. Your
chemists even in your day had begun to take les-
sons in chemical synthesis, and as time went on,
and the necessity increased, their efforts were stim-
ulated and constantly became more successful un-
til now they can produce a number of artificial
foods from the original elements without the neces-
sity of raising vegetables or animals by the action
of natural growth. Looking over into the twenty-
first century, we see that they will easily be able
to produce food from the elements as fast as Re-
quired. Their abilities and facilities will keep
pace with the population. This implies that the
race will not have to be checked in its expansion

150 The Lunarian Professor

by lack of food. The feature of evolution and se-
lection of the fittest by means of a struggle for
food will be entirely eliminated. The matter will
be entirely in the hands of the people themselves.'*

*'How about clothing," I asked, ''will they pro-
duce that too by the aid of chemistry?"

*'Yes they will. Sheep will not be required for
their wool any more than their flesh. A substitute
will be found for leather as well as beef. Better
and more durable clothing will be made directly
from minerals than were produced in your time
from vegetable and animal substances. Metals
and artificial mineral products began early in the
twentieth century and even before, to supplant
wood in buildings and many other structures. So
at present the use of wood is greatly reduced and
during the coming century it will be almost dis-
continued; a great many things are now made of
Alumina that were formerly made of wood, and
that metal has become cheaper and more abundant
than iron. Glass is also very much used, and
methods have been discovered of giving it any de-
sired temper, so that it is made flexible and tough
like pewter or firm and elastic like steel. It can
also be made fibrous and soft as cotton and can
be spun and woven into textile fabrics."

**But what are they going to do for power and
fuel?" I asked. **If there is to be such an in-
crease of population, an enormous consumption of
fuel and power will follow. Of course they will
use the coal while it lasts, but the supply of that
is limited, and if that is the only dependence, all

Sun Power 151

industries will sooner or later be brought to an
end.''

**The coal," said he, "was an excellent make
shift for temporary use until a more enduring
supply of power was discovered to supersede it.
But even now it could if necessary be almost en-
tirely dispensed with and yet there are still vast
deposits of it untouched. In the long distant
future the time will come when the coal will be
regarded as a deposit of food for your race as it
is now with ours, but it will not be consumed for
its heat or its power except in that way."

*'Have our people then learned how to get pow-
er as you do from the use of the principle of the
repulsion of gravitation?"

"Indeed they have not," he answered, "and
they are very unlikely ever to find out how to do
it unless instructed by us; and that will never be
till the Lunarians become lunatics. The new power
that has been developed and already brought into
considerable use and which will soon become a
substitute for ail others and endure as long as the
earth is habitable is simply sunlight ; and the
discovery that is to prove by far the most valuable
ever made by your race is the direct conversion of
its force into electricity, which can as you know be
conveyed hundreds of miles and applied to any
sort of machinery required. When coal is used to
produce electricity, the process is after all an in-
direct way of utilizing the force of the sun's rays.
Ages ago these rays created the vegetation that
afterwards became coal, and in burning the coal
now, the force of the sun's rays consumed in its

152 The Lunarian Professor

production is again brought into action in heating
the water, that expands into steam that drives the
engine, that turns the dynamo, that creates the
electric current. It was seen long ago that if some
process could be devised by which the force of the
sun-light could be consumed in the creation of
electricity directly, the suns rays of today could
be utilized in the production of power instead of
using up the coal that was produced by them in
former ages. .It was discovered in your day that
sun-light falling upon the metal selenium is turned
in part into electricity. Acting on this hint your
scientists experimented with that metal and others,
and tried hundreds of combinations and alloys.
They have discovered many compounds that pos-
sess this property, which is found to depend on the
sizes and shapes of the spaces between the mole-
cules of the metal. The impact of the undulations
of the ether that give rise to light, striking into
the ether confined in these peculiarly shaped spaces
impart to it the sort of motion these shapes make
it competent to take, which is the new form of mo-
tion, electricity. They were largely assisted and
guided in their investigations by spectrum analy-
sis. The apparatus for the production of electrici-
ty in this way is necessarily of large dimensions
presenting large surface to the sun, and as yet is
rather expensive, but once made, it lasts forever
and produces electricity whenever the sun shines.
Improvements are constantly being made that re-
duce the cost and increase the efficiency. These
machines are arranged to turn automatically, a cer-
tain face to the sun, revolvinij on a horizontal

Geographical Changes 153

plane diurnallj^ and changing their declination ver-
tically to follow thfe north and south movement of
the sun through the seasons. The electricity is
transmitted to storage batteries and a surplus thus
accumulated during sunshine to be used at night
and in cloudy weather or carried off to be used
elsewhere. These machines yield especially good
results in tropical latitudes and in localities where
clear weather predominates, such as southern Cali-
fornia, Arizona,, northern Mexico, the Sahara des-
ert, Egypt, Arabia, Tartary, Central Australia etc.
In all such countries railroads are operated at nom-
inal expense.

Stations at intervals transmit the power sever-
al hundred miles on either side. As there is practi-
cally no limit to this power it has come to be used
for the accomplishment of undertakings that were
hardly dreamed of before. The irrigation and de-
velopment of deserts by means of artesian wells
and by streams brought from a distance, followed
by the construction of roads, settlement and cul-
tivation are being vigorously prosecuted in all parts
where the climate is not too cold. Large tracts
notably in the Sahara and Cobi deserts and in Ara-
bia and Tartary, have already been made produc-
tive and populous. This power can be conveyed
to great distances from the point where it is de-
veloped, and made to do work in places practically
inaccessible to any other form of power. Excava-
tion of canals, railway cuts, tunnels and mines with
the transportation of materials for embankments is
prosecuted with tremendous energy. Innumerable
mines are being pushed far into the bowels of the

lo4: The Lunarian Professor

earth and the interior explored and honeycombed
in many directions. This work is however destined
to be of vastly more importance in the distant fut-
ure than at the present. But I think you can now
see that with practically unlimited power and un-
limited raw materials for the construction of the
human race placed in the hands of the race itself
3^our fears that the increase of population will ever
press uncomfortably on the means of subsistence
are not well founded."

*'Yes I do begin to see that," said I. *'It is all
very wonderful. ^Yhat a career the race has before
it! AVhy it has hardly got out of its cradle yet.
"What a misfortune that I was not reserved to be
born two or three centuries later so I could see
some of these future glories!"

''Nay, nay." he replied, ''that is a vain wish.
You may be as happy in your own time as you
could be in the future. In all the ages of the past,
people have been found expressing a poor opinion
of their own times, extolling the golden age that
was past or the millennium that was to come; and
it will be so in the future. If you were to live two
centuries hence you would see as many defects and
shortcomings, and anticipate as many still future
improvements and achievements as you did in your
day."

' ' AYell, I suppose, that must be so ; and yet with
such an apparently absolute control over the earth
it would seem that mankind might make themselves
comfortable and contented."

The Problem of Over Population 155

CHAPTER IX.
The Problem of Over Population.

''Notwithstanding all that has been and will be
accomplished by your enterprising race," said he,
''there are some things about the earth that they
will never be able to control or improve. There
are two in particular of essential importance. One
is the area of the earth's surface, which your race
can never increase no matter what its necessities
may be; the other is the slow but very certain re-
frigeration of the earth's climate by which we may
be sure that a time will be reached in the long
distant future when the habitable surface shall
gradually be reduced till at last no part of the
earth's surface will be tolerable to any living crea-
ture. So in effect while the demand of the race
will be for more room it will constantly be requir-
ed to put up with less."

• "But," said I, ''isn't that a good ways off?
The extreme refrigeration of the earth is a process
involving millions of years according to our scien-
tists."

"Yes, it will be a long time before any import-
ant reduction of area can take place, but not long
before the present room will become very much
cramped. Only a few moments ago we reckoned
that by the year 2070 there would be about
two acres to each of the 12,000,000,000 of

156 The Lunarian Professor

inhabitants, on which to live and move and
produce the means of subsistence. If the race
should then be doubling every thirty years,
in 2100 there will be but one acre for each;
and if they keep on increasing in 2130 a half acre;
in 2160 a quarter; in 2190 an eighth, in 2220 a six-
teenth; in 2250 a lot thirty-three by forty-one and
one-fourth feet, which in 2280 is reduced to thirty-
three by twenty feet 8 inches and this in 2292 four
hundred years after the centennial of the discovery
of America by Columbus that was celebrated in
your day at Chicago, will be reduced to thirty-three
by sixteen and one-half, or two rods by one. If
the population should get to be as numerous as
that the entire earth would be a city inhabited
twelve times as densly as the city of Minneapolis
was in your day. This of course is the average.
Some places are more desirable than others and
these would be more densely packed. Already at
the close of the twentieth century many of the
pleasanter parts of the earth have become uncom-
fortably populous, not from want of the means of
subsistence, but from want of room to carry on
the business and pleasures of life. And yet the
growth of population may be said to be just fairly
commenced. It is obvious from what can already
be seen that it will very soon be necessary to place
some artificial restriction on the increase of popu-
lation or else there will be such suffering among
men as will of itself operate to keep down the num-
ber of people by killing them off faster and short-
ening the average duration of life. These questions
are already being seriously considered by the phil-

Tlie Prohlem of Over Population 137

osophers and wise men, and many plans are being
discussed.

There are some pessimists who declare there is
no remedy. They say it was an egregious blunder
on the part of society to attempt the banishment of
suffering. It was suffering that had in all ages
kept down the population, so that the world re-
mained roomy enough to live in with some com-
fort. They hold that suffering is a necessary con-
comitant of comfort and we are bound to have it
both before it, as a necessary antecedent and after
it, as anecessary consequent. It is the law of na-
ture and it is vain to try to evade it. By banish-
ing war and want and disease, and reducing the
problem of life to an easy pleasant certainty, socie-
t}, they say, has caused herself to be invaded by
fresh innumerable hordes of human beings that
step into the arena of life from the secret caves of
non existence as if attracted' by the feast of good
things that she has provided for herself. When
the repressive hand of suffering is lifted a little
the human species breed and grow like rabbits un-
til they feel its hard pressure again.

Nature, they affirm, is no sentimentalist. Her
ways are all direct, hard, cruel and brutal. She is
extravagant and wasteful of effort and parsimoni-
ous of results. She creates a thousand seeds of
grain or grass or tree, only one of w^hich will be-
come a grown plant and reproduce its kind. She
is even more prodigal with the spawn of fishes de-
stroying millions for one she brings to maturity.
There is nothing to show that she cares any more
for the human race than for fishes. When men get

158 Tlie Lunarian Professor

too numerous she destroys them as ruthlessly as if
they "were so many herring or clams. They assert
it is impossible to evade or even to improve upon
the methods of nature. They point to the teeming
multitudes that have swarmed upon the earth dur-
ing the last century in such comparative security
and comfort as to invite a still greater inundation
during the century to come; and they declare it
to be one of the characteristic stratagems of na-
ture, only restraining her grim and malicious hu-
mor in order to make it the more tragic and appal-
ling when she does give it play. And they aver
that it would be better even now to drop a large
part if not all of the artificial stimulations to the
expansion of the population that have by insensi-
ble degrees been grafted upon state policy during
the last century. Let every tub stand on its own
bottom, say they, let natural selection secure the
survival of the fittest, and let the unfit be quietly
eliminated by whichever of the numerous methods
iiature finds most applicable. In opposition to these
are the optimists who hold that the human race is
nature's pet. If she could be said to plan anything
or to have any preferences in favor of anything, it
was the human family. After making trial in suc-
cession of the Trilobite, the Orthoceras, the Shark,
the Megalosaurus, the Pterodactyl, the IMastodon
and others, she put them all down and brought for-
ward man and placed him over them all, and made
him master of the earth. He was a frail insignifi-
cant helpless creature without weight power or dig-
nity. Other animals could beat him swimming div-
ing, flying, running, fighting. There was only one

The Problem of Ovei Population 159

thing he could do tolerably well and that was to
climb a tree. That was his capital, his stock in
trade as one might say, for it developed his hands
and quickened his senses. Nature took this unpre-
possessing, unpromising creature, educated and de-
veloped him in her stern school and by her unten-
der methods, put brains into him, civilized him and
fitted him to control the world and finally to
govern himself. This last lesson he has not yet
perfectly mastered, but he is learning more of it
every day. Progress, say they, never takes a back
track. The pessimistic theory that nature's plan
is to let every fellow look out for himself and the
devil take the hindmost, is no longer true. The
race has passed that place and the new ideal is;
every fellow for all the rest, and no one left be-
hind. Until this is practically realized they say
the race will not have fulfilled its destiny, and re-
treat is impossible. Moreover it is not necessary;
for the new departure is after all as natural as the
old way, and is in fact only a continuation of it;
a turn in the road as it were; and it may quite as
well be depended upon to rectify all the difficul-
ties of its own creation. If the principle of mutual
succor, sympathy and assistance leads to over pop-
ulation, the same principle must furnish the reme-
dy. The optimists admit the contention of the pes-
simists that this trouble is looming up, and the
philosophers of all schools are beginning to feel
serious. They are discussing such figures as we
had before us a few moments ago and endeavoring
to fix the date at which a halt will have to be
called, and the means devised by which it is to

160 Tlie Lunarian Professor

be accomplished. Some say the population is dense
enough now. Others point out that with the in-
creased means of subsistence there need not be any-
thing uncomfortable in a population of 12,000,000,-
000 which they estimate will not be reached till
2070, or 70 years from the present (A. D. 2000.)
And they are hopeful enough to believe that by
that time, human wit will have discovered some
way of controlling population w^ithout violence to
human happiness. All agree that if society is to
be maintained on the present scale it is high time
to settle the manner in which the great question
of population is to be met and handled. It is the
most difficult question that has ever demanded
human attention.

In your day there w^as already beginning to be
some discussion in regard to stirpiculture and the
scientific regulation of the family and rearing of
children. But it did not at that time reach a prac-
tical stage. No scientific conclusions on the sub-
ject of marriage have yet been able to displace
sentiment and instinct. But soon, as I have already
told you, the rearing of the children was under-
taken by the state and removed from the caprice
of sentiment and ignorance greatly to the advan-
tage of the children and of course tlTe race. But
the question of marriage remains the same senti-
mental business it was in the days of Jacob. And
with the increasing independence of w^omen it has
become even more a question of the feelings than
it was in your day when women often married
for a home and men sometimes for money. As the
problems of life, marriage etc., have become ques-

Tlie ProWem of Over Popidaiion 101

tions of state, inviting and even requiring ample
and public discussion, the squeamishness and false
modesty with which they were approached in your
day have entirely disappeared. The public inter-
est and the rights of the state in the question of
the perpetuation of the race are freely admitted
and discussed. The public mind has been gradual-
ly prepared for this by the gradual assumption by
the state of the care and education of the youth,
and by its experience in the treatment of crimin-
als. Where the treatment of all the youth is uni-
form and some after all, turn out to be criminals
as they occasionally do, the cause is looked for in
their parentage. The state is in condition to keep
track of ill born children, and after leaving the
schools they are still kept under the eye and guid-
ing advice and restraint if necessary of a special
department of the police service. In this way the
criminally disposed are known in advance, and
much crime is no doubt prevented. The criminally
disposed are regarded and treated as mentally
diseased.

There has been much discussion pro and con
of this mode of punishment, or — as some prefer to
express it — mode of treatment. But it is now gen-
erally conceded that society is entirely justifiable
in employing this mode of defense, especially since
capital punishment has been abolished, and this is
the maximum penalty that is corporally inflicted.
The public mind having had before it the operation
of this treatment as a sort of object lesson is the
more ready to listen to the proposition that is now
being discussed to use this same treatment for the

162 The Lunarian Professor

defense of society against herself. The question
is one that naist be approached with the utmost
consideration and tenderness as well as fairness
and justic applied after the most careful and
expert selection and with due regard to the char-
acter and physical and mental qualities that are
due to be expected from such conditions. It is
natural selection they say^ artificially applied
without the circumlocution and tedious delay of
nature's ordinary methods. Left to herself,
nature in the long run provides for the survi-
val of the fittest. "We now propose say they to
make the same provision in the short run. AVe are
now approaching one of those crises in human af-
fairs in which something has to be done, and if
men have not the wit to do it themselves, nature
takes hold and performs it in her hard way with
small tenderness for anybody's feelings or notions
of propriety. If we are competent, we will find
some way out of this difficulty without losing our
civilization; if we are not, nature will put us back
in the primer of barbarism, to learn it all over
again as she has done a dozen times before. AYe
have it in our power, and it is our obvious duty
to reduce the population, or to stop its increase,
and to do it in the very scientific manner that is
at our disposal, by which the best blood is selected
for transmission and the poorest is quietly eliminat-
ed without shock or pain to the individual or to
society. Not only can the best blood in general be
made exclusive, but any particular brand of best
blood can be picked out to receive special encour-
agement. We can preserve a class of talent inval-

Tlie Problem of Over Population 103

liable to civilization that nature could not be de-
pended on to select for preservation in the hard
struggle for existence — the gentle, the unselfish,
the intellectual worker and the poet. Nor can she
be depended on to eliminate the ruffianly, brutal,
criminal and selfish members whose room is better
than their company. Rather these are the very
ones she would be likely to save.

This is all in our hands, say they, and if we
have the nerve to carry it out, we can make the
earth a perpetual paradise. All we have to do is
to disqualify in their infancy the stirps whose pos-
terity we prefer not to see."

The Professor paused here and changed the pro-
file to his 'jokers' or middle pair of hands and pro-
ceeded to roll up the 20th century and expose the
21st.

''I believe," he resumed, ''that we had better
step forward another century, take our stand at
the year 2100 and survey the century retrospective-
ly, as we have done the 20th. It seems more natu-
ral to speak of it in the past tense since we have
become accustomed to that way."

*'A11 right," I answered, ''consider it done. I
am already there."

"Do you not remember," he went on, "that a
little while ago you expressed a wish that it might
have been your lot to live say 200 years later than
you did, so as to share and experience the glory
your race would have attained by that time? Well
you are in effect now there, and while you shall
never experience it in your own person, you shall

164: The Lunarian Professor

have a close glimpse of it and be able to compare
your anticipation with the reality.

"We are now celebrating January 1, 2100. As
you look around, you see very much that is un-
familiar and miss many things you used to see.
Take a map of the world and examine it. You will
find only three general governments on earth. First
is the ** Great Union of Free States, which you
have heard of, but now comprising all America,
the Pacific Islands, Japan, Australia, New Zea-
land, South Africa, The West Indies, Ireland and
Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Sw^eden, New
Guinea and the Philippines. Thus you see the prin-
cipal change in this government during the century
consists in the full annexation of all the South
American States north of Chili and Argentine, and
the Annexation of England. Scotland and Wales
and the Scandinavian states. The language of this
great empire is almost exclusively English, which
however, has been greatly corrupted, some say, or
enriched according to others, by the incorporation
of a large number of foreign words, mostly Spanish,
due to the intimate relations between the English
speaking peoples and those who used the Spanish
and Portuguese. South America has been settled
and cultivated and is the most productive county
on earth; a fairy land, a paradise. Nothing can
compare with it except some of the finest portions
of the Sahara desert, which has been developed by
the French; and some of the East India Islands.

Next is the Russo-Asiatic empire that comprises
Russia m Europe and all Asia except Arabia. It
is styled the *Russasia.' The government is a lim-

The Prohlein of Over Population 165

ited monarchy, very much like that of Great Brit-
ain in vour day. The Russians in Europe and
Siberia are represented by a parliament, which is,
the supreme legislative authority for the entire
empire The Asiatic States are governed by gov-
ernors appointed by the emperor at St. Petersburg
and most of them have local legislatures that reg-
ulate their local affairs. All China and parts of
India, Persia and Tartary, and Afghanistan are
divided into convenient sized states possessing this
local autonomy. All of this territory is being de-
veloped by the combined enterprise of the Rus-
sians and the Chinese, the latter scarcely second to
the former. Mongolia and Mantchooria have been
supplied with railroads and settled by both Chinese
and Russians. The Chinese have also migrated m
great numbers into Tartary and settled up what
x.sed to be the western end of the Chinese empire.
They have even settled in great numbers m Russia
and in western Asia. A great change <=ame over
the Chinese after their war with Japan m 1894— &.
They perceived that they were beaten by western
methods, and they suddenly conceived a respect for
the ways of the foreign devils as extreme as their
contempt for them had been before. They had al-
ways been on good terms with the Russians while
they disliked the English, French and Americans.
Having determined to adopt western ways, they
selected the Russians for their instructors and wel-
comed their capital and enterprise in the introduc-
tion of railways, opening mines, improving their
water ways, introducing western machinery and
manufactures. When the Russians in order to pro-

166 TIlc Lunarian Professor

tect their interests began a military occupation of
the country, they were not opposed, but rather
welcomed by the progressive party. The Chinese
were not a military people, and were really in need
of a coalition that would enable them to resist the
aggressions of the nations of western Europe, and
the Japanese. The remodeling of Chinese institu-
tions under the tutelage of the Russians advanced
rapidly. Probably the most radical and important
innovation was the introduction of the Russian
alphabet and the phonetic spelling of the Chinese
language by its use. This enabled the Chinese
youth to learn their own language much more easi-
ly, and it led directly to the study of the Russian
which became very necessary to a large extent, on
account of the intimate intercourse between the
two people, and on account of the new ideas, pro-
cesses and things, the names of which were Russian
without Chinese equivalents. This finally led to the
universal use of Russian by the educated Chinese.

After the formal annexation of China, the Rus-
sian became the official language, and the Chinese
language has gradually fallen into disuse and is
now almost extinct. The Chinese say of their
ancient tongue and the bug marks and turkey
tracks that constituted its written expression, "we
were little children when we used that language."

The Russian has also to a great extent super-
seded the Tartar, Turkish, Persian and other
tongues current in Central Asia. In doing this,
however, it has become considerably corrupted it-
self.

The Probfeiii of Over Popiilaiioii 167

The third great empire comprises all the terri-
tory not included in the other two, and embraces
all of Continental Europe except Russia and the
Scandinavian States, and all of Africa except that
part south of the 10th parallel of S. Lat. and Arabia.
It is called the Euro-Afric Confederacy. Tremend-
ous activity has been displayed by the Europeans
in the settlement and improvement of Africa dur-
ing the past two centuries. The whole continent
has been gridironed with railroads, all of it has
been civilized and the most unpromising part — the
Sahara desert has been made a vast garden.

The French have been most active in the north-
ern part, the Italians in the eastern part, the
Portuguese and Germans in the central por-
tions, the English in the southern. The Congo
and German States being open to free trade,
they came to be frequented by merchants from all
Europe and these were soon followed by permanent
settlers. After a time these people became tired of
being governed from Europe, and set up for them-
selves, declaring themselves independent, much as
the United States did in 1776. But in this case
there was no opposition for the principle of free
intercourse and unrestricted trade having been
firmly established, the mother countries did not
care to superintend the internal affairs of the young
states, and readily consented to their independence.
But this independence proved to be the forerunner
of a more extensive union namely the Euro-Afric
Confederacy. It was the last to be formed of the
three great empires that now cover the world. The
states comprising it are mostly republics. But a

168 The Lunarian Professor

few in middle Africa, Guinea and the Sondan, are
limited monarchies. The native races of Africa
are rapidly being displaced by the Europeans and
will totally disappear in a few generations as the
North American Indians did in your day. A large
migration of Negroes took place from the United
States to Africa during the 20th century, but they
did not thrive, and the race is vastly reduced both
in Africa and America."

''That is strange," said I, ''for in ray day the
negroes were very numerous in the southern states
— a majority in some places — and the question how
they were to be disposed of constituted one of the
questions of state of that period."

"True," he replied, "but up to that time there
had been no very severe competition for the means
of living. But it became more and more difficult
from that time on to make a living, and wherever
there is strong competition between men, the strong
positive, vigorous and hard, are sure to crow^l the
softer and weaker out, and take the prize they are
struggling for. In your day the negroes were gen-
erally content, in fact were compelled to be con-
tent, with such humble employments as the whites
did not care to engage in because there ivas enough
of a more ambitious sort to employ them. But
when the whites found it necessary to compete with
the negroes for the work they had before monopo-
lized, they easily boat them. The defeat of men
in the struggle for life affects them in two ways;
it discourages, worries and exhausts them mental-
ly; and it destroys their vigor throusfh want and
starvation, physically. The latter of these effects

The Problem of Over Population 1G9

tells at once in shortening the existence of the
present generation, and both of them tell on the
general force and vigor, the deterioration of which
is seen in the reduced numbers and virility of the
succeeding generations. "Wild animals newly do-
mesticated, fail to breed through mental strain and
worry. The same is true of savages when the men-
tal burdens of civilization are too suddenly laid
upon them, and the same principle holds in civil
life when from any cause the burden of life be-
comes too heavy — as, to the poor man when he
struggles against odds for bread for his family,
and to the rich when he struggles doubtfully for
the superfluities required by fashion. The negro
race is not extinct by any means even in the Unit-
ed States, but its extinction is only a question of
comparatively short time easily estimated from the
advance in that direction already made."

**But it seems to me," said I, "that there can
no longer be such a desperate struggle for existence
since the means of livelihood are within the reach
of all, and the exertion required has been so much
lessened by the state's care of the young etc.

''The means of mere existence," he said, *'are,
in most of the states of the ''Great Union," within
the reach of all, and no one need go hungry or
naked. If he is able to work, the state will give
him employment if no one else will, and if he is
not able he will be cared for anyhow. But the
style in which a man lives depends altogether on
his ambition and ability. If his ability is equal to
his ambition, he obtains what he wants and is hap
py and contented; unless, as often happens his am-

170 Tlic Lunarian Professor

bition grows by what it feeds on and excites him
to fresh exertions by a new allurement after every
success. And so the wearing struggle may go on
forever. People are mimics and none of them more
so than the negroes. In imitating a stronger race
they give out and gradually succumb. While they
were slaves they were free from this competition,
and rapidly increased. The African tribes were
also free from it. But both have now been expos-
ed to it for six generations and it has told on them
heavily. ' '

*'It would appear then that competition and
selection go on under the present conditions of life
almost as much as ever, for the law must apply to
the weaker whites as well as to the negroes."

**So it does, and always must, as long as men
are competent to discriminate betAveen the costly
and the cheap, and continue to prefer the former,
to the latter."

"The reason for such preference," I infer,
''must be that more enjoyment of life is found in
the possession of the more costly things. Is that
your view?

''It does not follow at all," he replied. *' Costly
things give a fictitious enjoyment in anticipation
while they are being pursued, but after they are
obtained they give no more enjoyment than if they
had been cheap. The possession of many things
that have cost great worry and exertion frecjuently
leads to nothing more than a perception of their
vanity, and the uncovering of a new perspective
of something bright and equally illusory beyond.
From time immemorial your philosophers have

The Problem of Over Population 171

sounded the praises of contentment. Contentment
is nothing more nor less than happiness, and it is
little to the purpose to ask a man to be happy un-
less the suggestion is backed up by the conditions
of his environment. When people have absolutely
nothing better to look forward to, they can almost
always settle down to a comparative degree of
contentment with what they have. But with an
environment constantly showing chances of pre-
ferment, wealth, distinction, etc., and examples of
the attainment of these things by others, content-
ment is constantly being unsettled and happiness
always deferred to the future. A guest taking his
dinner 'out' will reserve part of his appetite for
the unseen, but commonly expected, desert of pud-
ding and pie, but if he is informed that he ''sees
his dinner" before him, he will make himself quite
satisfied without the desert.

The fact is, the absolute contentment or hap-
piness that your poets dream for you, and your
priests sell to you in their heavens and nirvanas,
is absolute satisfaction with whatever is. It can
only come to an instinct in perfect harmony with
its environment. People can never be perfectly
happy except in a finished unchangeable state of
existence. They may approach it under conditions
in which change is very slow and slight."

"Is our race likely to attain it or anything like
it on earth?"

"Things on earth to-day look far more unsettled
than ever before, and yet they are getting into a
shape that promises peace and permanence in the
not very distant future. When the earth gets as

172 Tkc Lunarian Professor

full of people as it will hold and they learn how
to live by moderate exertion and above the fear
of failure and want, the millenium w^ill have come
to the extent that it can come."

*'AYell from what you said a while ago, I sup-
pose the world must already be as full of people
as it ought to be, and if everything is in equili-
brium, the milennium ought to have already dawn-
ed. But you have not told me whether this equili-
brium has been made secure and stable. For evi-
dently if means have not been found to keep the
population uniform and steady at its maximum
limit of comfort, even a perfect equilibrium would
soon be disturbed by its increase and the millen-
nium set back again.

You told me the stirpieulturists in the 20th
century proposed to accomplish the two objects of
restricting the race and at the same time improving
it, by select limitation. How did the plan suc-
ceed ?"

**It did not succeed at all," he replied. "The
population increased more rapidly than before.
A state of society something like a corrupt and
clandestine polygamy supervened. The tone of
society instead of being elevated was distinctive-
ly lowered. Thus both of the objects they so
hopefuly set out to accomplish, disastrously fail-
ed. When it was definitely given up by the pro-
gressive party that they were defeated and oblig-
ed to confess they were on the wrong track there
was a fearful revulsion and upheaval of society,
as there alwaj^s is when opinion is forced to fly
from one extreme to another. Many persons felt

The Problem of Over Population 1*^3

they had been wronged — treated as criminals
when they were only unfortunates .

* ' The danger from this class was now immin-
ent, and they had the sympathy of many in the
better walks of life. But the time soon rolled
round that drove people to think of nothing but
themselves. But this was one of those deliberate
movements that nature seems to delight in deal-
ing out to us. She dangles it over us like the
sword of Damocles. There was time to think;
before the thread snapped, if there was only the
wit. It was a time of common danger, and there
was no inclination nor profit in recrimmations be-
tween the parties. In the presence of an appal-
ling calamity they were both awed. They no
longer contended with each other, they were both
at their wits ends, and in fright they rushed into
each others presence to consult not to fight; and
trembled alike at the disaster that overwhelmed
them both; like tigers slinking into the presence
of their human enemies when threatened by a
common danger; as an earth-quake.

All admitted, the disappointment and failure
were complete.

**It seems to me that might have been forseen,"
said I,—* 'what did they do next?"

**They were in a great quandary, and did not
know what to do, many wild propositions were of-
fered and discussed. The pessimists although as
largely interested as anybody in the success of any
plan aiming at the public welfare, were really pleas-
ed at the failure of this, because it fulfilled their evil
predictions. They now said there was nothing to

174 The Lunarian Professor

be done but to return to the ancient plan of nature
in which every one looked after himself and his
children.

If one failed, it was nature's sign that he was
not wanted, and he had no business to have chil-
dren. But the optimists declared it to be impossi-
ble to return to the barbarous conditions that pre-
vailed in ancient times among savages. Nature,
said they, has evolved civilization and altruism,
and these are therefore as natural as barbarism.
But nature preserves a certain congruity of rela-
tionship between things, that we cannot easily set
aside, and so if we are going backward in regard
to the care of our young we shall lose the advan-
tages that we have gained in the improved quality
of the citizens, we have made out of them. For if
we throw all the responsibility on the parents,
while we cannot depend on a reduction in the num-
ber of the children, we may be sure of a deteriora-
tion in their bringing up and education. If we go
back to barbarism we must take all that barbarism
imposes. The human race they said was born to
luck. Whenever it got into a tight place, some
lucky turn of fortune's wheel always supplied its
need and brought it out of its troubles, and they
avowed their faith that something would yet turn
up to tide the race over the present crisis. In the
midst of these discussions, a great discovery was
made or accidentally stumbled upon that gave con-
firmation to this hopeful philosophy, and relieved
the fears of those philosophers who were in the
habit of taking the destiny of the race very much
to heart and who felt more or less resi^onsibility

The Problem of Over Population 175

for its future. That was a discovery of nature's
secret of the determination of sex. It enabled
people to control the sex of their children, a pow-
er that had been ardently wished for ever since the
days of Adam and scientifically sought after, at
least as far back as the time of Aristotle. They
thought that in this ''option of sex," as they
styled it, they at last possessed the infinitely im-
port-ant power of the control of population. They
had seen before this, that no restriction could
succeed, not founded on the support of all. All
discussion in this direction was brought to a sud-
den termination, by this timely discovery. All
felt as if the great problem was solved in the most
acceptable manner, not only in accordance with
refined sentiment, but with the pressing require-
ments of society, because this vital condition that
so intimately concerns us all is taken up by the
state and administered for the benefit of the
whole race.

In your day you doubtless remember that gen-
erally boys were in greater request and more wel-
come by parents than girls. And there continued
to be such a feeling until quite lately— for no very
good reason, except the habit of heredity— since
men could hardly be said to have had any advan-
tage over women for the last 100 years. At any
rate this prejudice assisted the state in the policy
it adopted of reducing the proportion of females,
and within two generations the census showed a
reduction of fifty per cent in the number of females
while the total population remained the same with-
out increase. This result was peculiarly gratify-

176 The Lunarian Professor

ing to the political economists and philosophers,
for as they declared the state had now complete
control of the population and could on a tolerably
short notice increase or diminish it as the com-
fort of the race might demand."

I interrupted the Professor here to express with
some pardonable enthusiasm my congratulations
that this vital question had been so successfully
and thoroughly met. I said I always had confi-
dence in my race and now more than ever. I
felt proud of the honor of being an humble mem-
ber of it; and more to the same effect; to which
he listened with some impatience and then pro-
ceeded.

** There were some results that were not antici-
pated, that followed from the practical operation
of the ''option of sex." One was the very rapid
elevation, almost defication of women. As there
was now but one woman to three men her value
and importance rose in the inverse ratio; and it
became the habit to ssiy that women were worth
three times as much as men. They were in fact
worth a good deal more than that, for they soon
perceived that they held the key of power and
the destiny of the race and were able to construct
the conditions of life to suit their own whims and
caprices. They became in fact the ruling sex.
They demanded for themselves and easily obtained
all the easy and profitable positions in business and
official life, and remanded men to those least de-
sirable. The wholesome civil service principles that
had become pretty well settled in the law, thought,
and practice of the country were now habitually

The Prohlem. of Over Population '17'^

evaded or openly set aside in favor of the sex.
Nothing they asked for was denied them and hard-
ly anything was good enough for them. In your
day the women in America were extravagantly
petted and coddled, but the attention and rever-
ence they received then was nothing compared with
the adulation and servility that has of late been
rendered to them. Such a condition of things could
not fail to encourage tryanny and arrogance, and
to create them where they had not been before.
Sentiment and favoritism became the controlling
forces and business principles were ignored.

There were three candidates for every woman's
hand, two of whom were bound to be be disap-
pointed, and so one-half the population — two-thirds
of the masculine part — were doomed to a life of
single misery. They did not accept the situation
with fortitude or resignation. There was no end
to quarreling and personal antagonisms and viol-
ence between rivals, and there arose what there
had not been for several generations, and that was
a ** dangerous class." It became unsafe for mar-
ried people of either sex to appear on the streets
unguarded. The ''social evil" that in your day
was so sore a question had long since under the
conditions of universal matrimony, died out, and
had practically ceased for a century and a half,
now came again into existence in a more virulent
form than ever. All classes felt the relaxation of
the former restraints, and immorality became
frightfully prevalent. Divorce which had become
almost obsolete, now came to be an every day
occurrence, not often, however, upon the com-

178 The Lunarian Professor

plaint of the comparatively helpless husband, but
upon that of the fickle wife who had succumb-
ed to the superior attractions of a newer affin-
ity. Divorce was now practically in the hands
of the wife, and she dismissed her husband when
he failed to please her, or w^hen a more eligible
mate presented himself. All women of course were
not like that, but they all had the power to be, and
a frightfully large proportion of them were."

''The wise men of our race," said I, ** especial-
ly those of ancient times have generally regarded
women as being not merely inferior to men physi-
cally and mentally, but as being essentially de-
praved and incapable of being good except under
the stimulation and wise and pious discipline and
example of men. Does the state of society you
have described to me bear out this opinion? It
seems that the women have broken loose from the
wholesome restraints that were imposed on them
in the former constitution of society in which men
were supreme; and like a runaway team they are
about to smash the wagon and dash out their own
brains."

**No," he replied, ''the state of affairs I have
described does not at all confirm the opinion of the
old blockheads you call your wise men. If they
had been really wise they would have known that
both women and men are created, formed, moulded
and finished by their environment. Now woman
constitutes a part of the environment of man and
man constitutes a part, but in old times he consti-
tuted a relatively much larger part of the environ-
ment of woman. So it might be said, that if man

The Problem of Over Population ITO

was better than woman, it was because her influ-
ence on him was better or at least less harmful
than his influence on her.

But the fact is that under equal conditions the
influence that each exerts on the other is equal,
and they are mutually benefitted. The nearest to
a golden age your race has ever come was during
the one hundred years from the middle of the 20th
to the middle of the 21st century, and that is the
period of the most complete equality of the sexes
in all respects — numbers, liberty, similarity of oc-
cupations and equal duties and responsibilities,
and the total ignoring and rejection of the notion
of any difference of * spheres' for the activities of
the two. The reciprocal and essentially exclusive
functions involved are peculiar to each, but these
do not essentially, and at the present, do not real-
ly interfere in any of the active employments peo-
ple choose to engage in."

*' Nursing the children is essentially the woman's
business is it not?" I inquired.

"Not at all," he answered. *' Mammary glands
belong to the male as well as the female."

''Functionless ones," said I.

"Only functionless," he replied, "because they
are not used. In your day there were occasional
cases of well developed male mammae and profes-
sional male wet nurses, now they are common and
it is doubtful if there are as many female as male
nurses. There are and always were women who
could not nurse their children, and these are more
numerous now than ever. It is simply because
there are other things they prefer to do, and so the

180 The Lunarian Professor

accommodating function suppresses itself just as
it did in the male because he for ages suppressed
its use. So you see that even in nursing and rear-
ing the children there is no exclusive female
'' sphere '* any more than a male "sphere." In
the golden age I have just spoken of there was
greater harmony and happiness than ever before,
one of the essential conditions of which was the
almost perfect equality of the sexes. But the ter-
mination of this golden age and the beginning of
the social anarchy that commenced about the mid-
dle of the 21st century was traceable chiefly to the
disparity in numbers between the sexes brought
about b}^ the operation of the ''Option of Sex." If
we are to charge it to the corrupt influence of one
sex on the other it was the corrupt assault of the
unavoidably unmarried of the male sex on the in-
stitution of Vv^edlock. If the women were willful
arrogant and naughty, it was only because there
were men about them in the proportion of three to
one — for which they were not to blame — nor the
men either, but the limited capacity of this globe,
and nobody was to blame for that. Thus whatever
they are or do in either sex is traceable to their
environment."

''Well," said I, "since there has been such a
failure, I am glad after all that my day was ended
long before these evil times came. But what is
to become of the race now? Will they discover a
way to hold their own?"

"There never was," said he, "a lack of wise
doctors amongst men who were always ready with
a sure cure for the ills that beset the race. Some

Tlie Problem of Over Population 181

of them now proposed as a remedy for the social
maladies a plan of life that was not new nor origi-
nal, but which differed as far as possible from the
hereditary notions of the western nations. This
was nothing less than polyandry or the plurality
of husbands. They said, let every woman have
three husbands and harmony and peace will be re-
stored, and vice be deprived of excuse. They said
this was no experiment, but had been practiced
successfully amongst some of the eastern nations
from time immemorial. They referred to the case
of the Ladaks a highly civilized, steady and re-
ligious people of the Buddhist faith, who inhabit
the lofty and circumscribed valley at the head
waters of the Indus. The place will support only
so many people. If too many were born they could
not emigrate to a lower country on account of the
oppression of the heavier air. For a converse rea-
son no immigrants ever attempt to settle there.
But the population is kept uniform and steady by
the simple plan of giving each wife three husbands.
This has been successful for a thousand years on a
small scale and there seemed no reason why it
would not work on a large scale. But this scheme
was promptly and emphatically rejected by the
women of influence and authority, the moment it
was proposed. They asserted there was no civilized
relationship except Monogamy. That alone brought
equality of the sexes and equality alone stood be-
tween the race and barbarism.

It was true that polyandry was already practiced
surreptitiously to a certain extent in America, but
it was the disreputable exception and they did not

182 The Lunarian Professor

propose to make it the honorable rule. Thcj^ de-
nounced the plan as being scarcely one remove
from the ''social evil" itself. Polygamy, they said,
is natural, made so by immemorial usage. The
race was brought up on that and is built with re-
ference to it. But polyandry, No! nothing in na-
ture so repulsive and revolting. That settled it.

CHAPTER X.
The Third Sex.

*'It is a painful tale you have told me, Profes-
sor," said I, "I sincerely hope you have got a
pleasanter sequel to take off its sting. Well, our
race has always had its ups and downs. The one
seems always to breed the other. So as it has re-
ceived a check now, that must be a prophecy of
better times ahead. After all I shall be disappoint-
ed if human wit has been so completely baffled by
that problem of population that it has failed to
find a way for its regulation without violation of
the generous instincts of humanity."

''Your confidence in human Avit is commendable
from a patriotic point of view," returned the Pro-
fessor, "but for this particular occasion it is not
entirely justified. The fact is that not many years
ago your race in North America and Europe had
so crowded upon its conditions of comfortable ex-
istence that it was in imminent danger of a dis-

The Third Sex 183

astrous, if not total collapse. The efforts then
made to prevent this, resulted almost in the disor-
ganization of society to such an extent that a col-
lapse from this cause was seriously threatened.
Your race and nation have been saved from such
collapse and a repetition of one of its numerous re-
lapses into barbarism, not, however, by human wit
this time, but by the wisdom and generosity of the
race I have the honor to represent.'^

**What! the Lunarians?

**The same. Our people saw the straits to which
the human family was reduced, and willing that it
should be spared the distress that they had been
compelled to undergo before the discovery of the
means of protection against themselves, they sent
messengers to earth with the necessary facts and
instructions."

**I am amazed, and gratified," said I, ''for this
signal proof that benevolence is not confined to any
one world or race; but I am impatient to know
what this wonderful and essential secret is, that
defied the penetration of the wise of my own race."

**Our belief," said he, ''is that it would not al-
ways have eluded them, but they would have failed
to apprehend it in time to save the race from pres-
ent disaster. The Lunarians have always taken
a deep interest in Mundane affairs, and have given
many hints to man, some of which have been acted
upon with good results. But many others could
not be properly acted on or even fairly understood,
because the education of your race had not pre-
pared them for it. We are often tempted to ex-
claim "what a stupid race.'' But then we re-

184 Tlic Lunarian Professor

member how very young and immature you arc,
and we remember too that once we were in a like
state of infancy ourselves, and so we exercise char-
ity."

**But what was the secret you told us? — I am
anxious to learn at once, lest some accident shall
forever bar my opportunity."

''"Well the secret is the simplest thing in the
w^orld, and your scientists have been reproaching
themselves all over the earth for not having dis-
covered it themselves. In fact, as they say, they
did discover all around it when the}^ lit upon the
"Option of Sex." It is simply the conditions for
the production at will of the Third Sex."

''The Third Sex!" I echoed in amazement.

"Yes the Third Sex. I prefer that name, though
some have called it the neuter sex, others name it
the Double Sex, or the Epicene or Common Sex,
others the Hermes- Aphrodite. In some respects it
is all of these, or either, or neither. But it is st
any rate Third. I am not going to give you the
recipe," said he, "for if I do, when you leave here,
and now and go back to the Nineteenth Centurj^
you will be sure to let out the secret prematurely
by two hundred years. But I can say that the de-
velopment of the third sex is in reality no develop-
ment at all, but an arrest of development, at a
particular prenatal period. If you are informed
in the science of embryology, you know that in the
earliest stage of the embryos of all sexual animals,
the sex is not determined, and at that stage there
is nothing to distinguish whether the coming indi-
vidual is to be male or female. It possesses possibili-

The Third Sex 185

ties of either and therefore the germs of both. At
a second stage the elements of the essential organs
of both sexes are developed in each individual and
then the individual is both male and female, but
not fully matured or developed. At the third stage
the organs distinguishing one of the sexes are
carried forward to functional perfection, while
those pertaining to the other, are not developed
any further, and in some cases are partly undone
again. Now if the developement of the embryonic
sexual organs be arrested during the second stage
of grov/th or before it, the individual will be neith-
er male nor female, but w^ill belong to the third
sex. The manner in which this arrest can be ac-
complished is the secret we imparted to you 20
years ago, and by means of which the important
problem of the control of population can be solved
by you as it was long ago done by us."

**Then you have the three sexes in the moon?"

**We have had them for many ages, in fact,
we would not know how to exist if we had but
two."

**It is a wonder to me how you ever could have
fallen upon so wonderful an arcanum — that nature
seems to be carefully hiding from us."

** Nature dropped the hint in this as in so many
others of our discoveries. There were occasional
examples of the third sex produced by nature and
born into life, as there have been in the case of
the human race as you must know. These examples
excited curiosity, which led to the discovery, that
they w^ere due to arrested development. Further
investigation and experiment showed this arrest to

186 The Lunarian Professor

be due to deprivation of a certain class of food, or
rather of food in a certain dynamic condition, that
is, under certain electric tensions. This condition
again depends on the molecular structure of the
food elements. "When the food is deprived of the
constituent *plastidules required for the nourish-
ment and development of the tissues composing the
embryo organs of sex; these tissues do not mature.
And since the emasculation or invalidation of the
food does not extend to, or affect the process of
assimilation of the same nourishment by the other
tissues, such as muscle, brain, nerve, bone, etc., the
individual is built up to a symmetrically sexless
maturity. And the development of sex is said to be
arrested.

If your people had been as wise as the bees
they would have known how to produce the third
sex simply as the bees do by supplying the appro-
priate sort of nutriment; for they, from the same
sort of an ^gg, produce either a queen, a drone or a
worker, the latter being of the neuter or third
sex ; simply by variations in the food and treatment.
It is said, that itwas by observing and follow-
ing such hints as these that our ancestors learned
how to produce the same results the bees have
accomplished."

"While the Professor was making this explana-
tion, the question arose in my mind whether this
discovery, surprising as it was, was sufficient to
rectify the ills that our race had encountered.
Would there not be some unforseen drawback as

* Plastidulc Is tlie lowest, or unit molecule of proto-
Ijlasiii.

The Third Sex 187

there had proved to be to the other schemes, that
would neutralize the anticipated benefits, or work
another disaster as great as the one it was intend-
ed to cure. Was the third sex in itself a desirable
or happy kind of condition to have. The contem-
plation of this subject, at first repulsive; when
viewed philosophically becomes exceedingly inter-
esting as one of the curious flights of nature. It
is true that the specimens of these people she has
furnished us on earth, we have commonly regard-
ed as unhappy monstrosities. — But that is no doubt
due to ignorance and prejudice, and to the anomal-
ous conditions into which they are born. I ex-
pressed myself somewhat in accordance with these
reflections, after which the Professor with some
hesitation proceeded.

''In your day the family was spoken of as the
basis and the bond of society; and by the family
was meant a father and mother and a brood of
children, all living together and working and car-
ing for each other. The family Avas the laboratory
for the creation and preparation of the citizens of
the state. As an instrument for the education and
development of the young citizens it was discover-
ed to be, in civil life, inefficient and costly very
unequal in its results and entailing an unequal and
unjust distribution of its burdens. The state gradu-
ally assumed one after another of these former
family duties and burdens in the rearing and de-
velopment of the young, and in doing so, gradually
disintegrated the family until there was nothing-
left of it except a pair of people, a man and a
woman. But in this the state only consummated a

ISS The Lunarian Professor

process that had been begun generations before by
the invention of labor saving machiner5^ The fam-
ily of your day was already a very much dv.'indled
affair, compared with that of ancient times. Then
the members of the family made for themselves
their clothing and everything they required and
they constituted a military body of which the
father was the chief. But when machinery and
gunpowder were invented, labor and employment,
in both peace and war, became specialized, and in
the division of labor that followed, families were
gradually separated so as to use the labor of their
individual components to greater advantage and
new combinations were formed that crossed and
obliterated family lines.

When the families gave up their children to
the state to be brought up, it was a continuation
of the same process in accordance with the eternal
law of economy, and because the machinery of the
state for the care of the young was so much better
and cheaper than that of the family, that the latter
could no longer compete. When this was accom-
plished the family had lost every function that
had ever made it a nesessary or important subdi-
vision of society.

In former times the state of celibacy was re-
garded as censurable and blameworthy, because the
unmarried by failing to raise and provide for a
family of children were considered as shirking out
of a duty they owed to society. But when it was
no longer the business of individuals to provide for
the growing citizens, it became a matter of total
indifference to the general public whether one was

The Third Sex 1$9

married or not. It became unimportant to the
public to know even of what sex any individual
might be, and the ancient laws that required the
sex to be advertised by their clothes, vrere repealed
and everybody was allowed to dress according to
the demands of their business or their fancy. All
artificial distinctions of sex such as employment,
civil rights and dress were abolished, and the per-
sonal pronouns and titles of address that recogniz-
ed sex were of necessity dropped out of the lan-
guages. These things have already transpired in
your country and in all the more advanced coun-
tries of the world and this has prepared the people
to view the introduction of the third sex with
philosophical interest and appreciation, instead of
vulgar and unreasoning prejudice. You must make
allowance for the advance people have m.ade since
your day in education and the comprehensiveness
of their views. The third sex was looked upon in
your day as a monstrosity, because it was rare.
Did they regard a seedless orange or lemon or
grape as a monstrosity? If you had ever seen a
horse with three toes on each foot you would have
called him a monstrosity, but the time was as you
know, when the horse commonly had three toes
and the monstrosity was the animal with only one.
such as you regarded in your day as a perfect
model of beauty and utility.

Your race will not regard the third sex with
aversion or depreciation when they understand its
relations and experience- its value."

''Please tell me," said I, ''what the relations
of this sex to the others will be. I suppose of

190 The Lunarian Professor

course it Avill be subordinate to the others, especial-
ly the male."

"Well," he replied, "your experience in this
matter will closely follow ours. As it is in Luna,
so it is beginning to be on earth. You are greatly
mistaken in supposing our sex to be subordinate
to another."

At the expression "our sex," I involutarily
gave the Professor a surprised glance.

"Then your affiliations are with that sex?"

"I have indeed that honor."

I was greatly astonished at this avowal and was
greatly mortified to reflect that I had unwittingly
said things that must have hurt his feelings, al-
though he gave no sign of being in the least of-
fended. I began an embarrassed apology, but he
silenced me by a deprecatory wave of his right
joker. He appeared amused rather than offended
and evidently excused my unlucky observations as
due to the ignorance and inexperience of the human
race; which indeed, they were. I am now in doubt
about the propriety of these masculine personal
pronouns that I have applied when speaking of him
but I shall continue to use them for I do not know
what sort to substitute for them; certainly none
of less dignity would seem appropriate to so digni-
fied and noble a personage.

"In the moon," the Professor went on, "there
is perfect equality between all individuals, regard-
less of the sex. But the third sex is numerically
far the largest and in case of disagreement would
easily dominate the other two. But there is and
has been from time immemorial perfect harmony

Tlic Third Sex 101

as betvreen the sexes, their functions being of
necessity complemental and in no way antagonistic.
The most responsible places in the state, and the
leadership in education, in religion, in public works,
engineering and architecture as well as almost all
the common occupations, such as manufacturing
and storing goods, agriculture etc., are in the hands
of the third sex. They are preeminently people of
affairs, and for most occupations are decidedly
superior to the other sexes, because they are less
liable to be distracted from their chosen occupations.

The males and females generally marry and then
their first duties are to each other, otherwise they
are employed like the third sex people.

Married people are desired to conform to the
policy of the State Bureau of Population in
regard to the distinctions required by it. Other-
wise they are under no restriction or obligation.
The population is thus kept uniform or increased
or diminished in an almost exact and scientific man-
ner. As I have already informed you, all Lunarians
are by nature industrious and they take the keenest
sort of pleasure in their work. Nevertheless they
also play and amuse themselves, and devote much
time to intellectual occupations. They have numer-
ous societies and clubs, and the third sex people in
particular are organized into associations for said
purposes. So are the others also, but their club
life is more or less interrupted and broken up by
their connubial relations and duties. The third
sex people are distinguished for their personal
friendships which are very close intimate and ten-
der and of life long constancy. These friendships

19,2 The Lunarian Professor

i'ounded on compatibility of character, similarity of
tastes and pursuits the subtile attractions of reci-
procal intellectual and spiritual qualities, we re-
gard as finer, more elevated, more noble, more ex-
quisite and more absorbing than the unions formed
on the basis of sexual attractions, and they are
notably more permanent."

''Then,'' said I, *'you have no jealousies of the
other sexes — no envy?"

**^liy should we have when it is plain we are
as happy — we think happier — than they? We would
not change places with them, any sooner than you
would with a fish, because it can dive into depths
you cannot penetrate, or a bird, because it can
soar where you cannot. You know you would lose
by the exchange. In a society where there are no
artificial distinctions on account of sex it is not
possible to find any one who would willingly ex-
change with another. ^ATiy should not a non-mar-
rying sex be happy? Do you not remember that
one of the great teachers of earth declared that in
the kingdom of heaven they neither marry nor are
given in marriage? Certainly the third sex is in a
better condition to comply with this celestial reg-
iiltaion than either of the others. The same great
teacher was apparently so impressed with the
superior conditions for happiness possessed by the
third sex that he recommended to those of his fol-
lowers who were able to receive it, to attach them-
selves to that sex by artificial means*, and not a

* The Professor probably referred to the instruction
found in Matt. 19: 12.

The Third Sex li)3

few of them have from time to time attempted to
do so. But there is a vast difference between the
artificial and the natural, the spurious and the
genuine. Those who are of the third sex by natural
development, are formed symmetrically; the brain
and the mind depending on it, with its desires and
aversions are formed in unison and harmony with
the other bodily parts and organs.

The samie causes that suppress the formation of
the latter also prevent the development of the cor-
responding pieces of brain and mind. There is
therefore no clash between mind and body, no men-
tal instincts that the body is physically disqualified
from executing. The artificial imitation on the
other hand is a mutilate. His symmetry and bal-
ance are destroyed because he retains a sexual
brain and mind. He is out of harmony with him-
self, necessarily unhappy, and often a wretch.

Intellectually the third sex is superior to the
others It is less emotional, more cool, dispassion-
ate, patient and rational. It is more gentle and
sympathetic, yet more firm in its conclusions and
persistent in its purposes. In size it is between the
other sexes the male being the largest-as with
you— and from the same cause, polygamy, which
as in your case, was practiced by our ancestors.
But our sex is physically finer, stronger, more wiry
and tough, more skillful in all the arts of life and
twenty-five per cent longer lived than the others.
In short we possess all the good qualities of the
others in an increased degree, as if the mater-
ial that nature saved by the suppression of sex-

194 The Lunarian Professor

ual qualities, she used for the purpose of re-infore-
ing and augmenting the remaining ones.

You are I think now enabled to judge what
your third sex is like, that is just now being in-
troduced as an active factor in human affairs.
Your race is now for the first time in its history,
able in a perfectly scientific manner, to defend it-
self against its own encroachments. Your long
looked for millennium dates from this very moment
— the practical introduction of this new factor.
The disorders of the past half century that seemed
to many to mark the beginning of a chaotic an-
archy in reality mark its termination. From this
time farward, law and liberty will gradually grow
together until, at a period long before the end of
this millennium, they will precisely coincide.
Things will not be perfect at first. Men will learn
better every day how to live and every day will
subjugate more and more of the energies and ma-
terials of nature to their own ends. The millen-
nium that begins now will be succeeded by ninety-
nine more before your race will have passed its
high tide and begun its final ebb,''

XI.

The Millennium.

The Professor here begun to roll up his profile.
He was evidently preparing to leave, biit as long as

the Millennium 195

he had been with me, and it seemed as if it were
daj^s, I was more loath than ever to part with him.
My dread of the separation rapidly grew into a
veritable panic, and I became so desperate as to be-
seech him, if he must go, to take me with him. He
was evidently much amused, and I thought gratified
as well, but explained that it would be impossible
at that time, as his storage capacity for compressed
air was only sufficient for one, and his car was in
fact hardly suited to carry double.

''Then," said I, ''give me a few moments longer
if you possibly can. I do so wish to know some-
thing of our posterity ten millenniums ahead —
twenty — a hundred. But no I am selfish — you are
doubtless suffering now from your long stay and
I ought not to ask anything more."

"Say no more," he said, "I will stay a few
moments longer. I am not seriously inconvenienced
as yet. But I cannot give you continuous history
as that will take too long, but I will post you on
a few prominent points that will interest you.

One thing you will consider remarkable in the
beginning of the first millennium, is a growing
disregard for the accumulation of great wealth.
The day of millionaires passed away before the
close of the 20th century. Legislation looking to
the reduction of great estates and the prevention
of such overgrown accumulations in the future,
was enacted at the beginning of the century. But
the spirit of greed was not outgrown until the
creation of wealth became so easy and under such
control by the state that more than enough for
comfort and ease was placed at the command of

196 The Lunarian Professor

ever}' one. No one was obliged to pay for any-
thing, more than it cost, because the state vroulcl
furnish all that was necessary on those terms, if
no one else would. Speculative profits were abol-
ished and the cost of an article was made up of
wages only — the wage of the man in getting the
raw material, the wage of the factors and the ma-
chinery in its fabrication, the cost of transporta-
tion, the wage of the salesman etc., all added to-
gether. The accumulation of excessive wealth was
possible only when the speculator got hold of
something it was necessary for other people to
have, and who then made them pay for it much
more than it cost him. This was all stopped as I
said, before the close of the 20th century. But it
was reserved to the beginning of the millennium to
produce wealth in such abundance that it was not
possible for anybody to have a single thing that
it was essential for anybody else to have.

The material means of comfort and happiness
exist on the earth as abundantly as the air for
breathing. The education of the human race con-
sists in their learning how to take and use them.
Having learned this, the abundance of wealth is
its security against the monopoly of the greedy,
and so your millennium begins with available
wealth so plentiful, that its surplus accumulation
has no longer a sane object, and there is no more
reason in a man hoarding it than in his eating the
surplus food on the dinner table after he has had
enough.

In your day if all the wealth of the world had
been equally divided among its inhabitants there

The 2Iillcniuum 19'^

would hardly have been enough for eaeh person,
to maintain him one year. The people lived from
hand to mouth, and if the earth had failed to bring
forth her bounty in erops for one year hair the
population would have perished. Now ^f «™ f"d
rain should fail to mature the crops, the giant
laboratories of artificial food can soon supply tne
deficiency. The tendency of the times is to depend
less and less on the cultivation of the natural foods
that are liable to the chances of unfavorable wind
and weather, and to rely on the art ficial products
the creation of which is a matter of scientific cer-
tainty and accurary. .

Let us now put ourselves forward again; this
time one hundred millenniums, and look into the
past as we have done before. We shall see that
before the middle of the first millennium the prin-
cipal articles of food are artificial productions
identically like the natural foods formerly used
sS :: milk, flour, meat, butter, f-^ts, vegetaWes
etc In addition to these many other foods were
invented similar and equivalent to these natural
productions. Later on the artificial products came
more and more to consist of the proximate prin-
ciples and condensed forms of food, fats, oils, sugar,
and starch, gum, gluten, albumen, Abrin, casein,
gelatine etc., directly from minerals, especial y coal
or from cheap vegetation such as weeds that in
your day were destroyed as worthless, sea weed
etc., also from sea animals. Nothing came amiss
chemistry could produce rich and nourishing food
from what in your day were the most unpromis-
ing materials, and at a merely nominal cost too, be-

198 The Lunarian Professor

cause power was furnished by the sun as I have
explained to you. The constant tendency of chem-
ical discovery was toward the production of foods
in their purity, unmixed with the bulky residuum
that goes with natural foods and that in the pro-
cess of assimilation has to be rejected. As the
foods thus became more condensed and pure a few
spoons full became the daily food of a man, the
pleasures of the table became less keen and pro-
tracted and gradually fell out of fashion. Other
methods of recreation were more cultivated, such
as music, oratory, the lyceum, theater, scientific
lectures and experiments, games, etc. In many
other respects the habits and fashions of life chang-
ed during the first millennium. The practice of
walking was almost discontinued; flying machines
having come into universal use. They reached
perfection and were so inexpensive to operate, that
they became a part of the equipment of everybody.
Gentlemen went to their business, ladies went shop-
ping, children Aveut to school, with their flyers, as
they formerly used to do to a less universal extent,
with their bicycles.

The changes that took place in the habits of
the people in respect to eating, walking and other
things, reacted upon their physical development,
slowly and imperceptibly, however, unless com-
parisons were made between people of several gen-
erations apart. The tendency as you know, is, to-
ward the suppression of organs not habitually us-
ed. Use and habit keep all organs in good running
order and develop them in size and health, where-
as disuse allows them to become shriveled and re-

The Millennium 109

duced, and if it is persisted in for too many gen-
erations the organ will be reduced to an unrecog-
nizable functionless remnant or disappear alto-
gether. All animals including man have lost or-
gans by ceasing to use them. Very many, as the
ox, sheep, dog, deer etc., have lost toes, many have
lost part of their intestines, some have lost a part
or the whole of one lung. Most vertebrates includ-
ing man were derived from ancestors who once
possessed— but lost— an eye on the back of the
head. The whales and snakes have lost their legs
and feet in whole or in part.

You will not be surprised therefore to be told
that the man of the second millennium began to
be perceptibly changed from the one you knew in
the 19th century. But when we come to the tenth
millennium the change is astonishing. Let me de-
scribe him.

His average height is eight inches less. His legs
are short and spindling, his feet are small, and
his toes reduced to small nubbins or mere warts.
He has no teeth and the males and third sex people
have not hair enough to make a scalp lock, even
among the young, and it all disappears before mid-
dle age. The females however still maintain
enough for a few bangs and spit curls. The ex-
ternal ears are reduced to a low rim of cartilage
around the opening, about one inch in diameter.
The lower part of the trunk is small and weak.
The upper part containing the heart and lungs is,
however, very well developed. The arms and hands
are well formed strong and symmetrical. The
head is very large indicating large mental power.

200 The Lunarian Professor

All these deviations from the average man of your
day became more pronounced with time, and if
you could see a man of the one hundredth millen-
nium you would have to inquire what it was. His
stature now is but four feet, twelve inches of
which is head, eighteen inches trunk, and the other
eighteen inches legs. His chest is \qvj broad, and
very thick from front to back. His arms are stout
and long enough to allow him to reach to his
knees while standing. They are much larger and
stronger than his legs. He is bald as an orange
from birth. He has an immense mouth which he
uses much in singing, laughing and speaking. He
has not the vestige of an external ear nor any
hair on any part of the body. No teeth of course
and no sign of a toe. The foot is also much
shortened and his walk is neither graceful nor vig-
orous. Foot ball is no longer his best hold, al-
though his ancestor in your day may have belong-
ed to the Sophomore foot ball eleven, of the Minne-
sota University. It would probobly astonish you
to see him eat. If not, it would be because you
did not know what he was doing. His food is a
liquid, an artificial preparation digested and as-
similated ready for absorption by the tissues. He
does not take it in at the mouth, but by an orifice
leading into the abdomen. This orifice is in the
position of the navel, and is the opening of the
umbilical cord through the outer wall of the ab-
domen to its connection with the vascular system
inside.

In ancient times the umbilical cord through
which the embrvo received its nourishment became

The MUlennium 201

pinched off on the outside after birth, while the
part of it that remained inside of the body cavity
became reduced to a mere string, a useless rudi-
ment. But now that inside piece is kept in use
from birth, the child being fed in the same way
after as before birth. This opening by hereditary
habit has developed wonderful changes for which,
however, the long ages of use have furnished am-
ple time for adjustment into a perfect adaptation
of the parts and functions concerned. But really
the changes are by no means so radical as they
seem at first view. The change made in the mode
of life of a new infant is in reality the same in
effect now that it was in your day. The essential
operation in both cases is the introduction of
nourishment into the blood and it is accomplished
in both cases by osmosis. The history of this
evolution is interesting, but I can give you only
a bare outline of it.

As the business of the world came to be done
almost exclusively by machinery directed by men's
brains, there was but little use for muscular ex-
ertion, especiallj^ of the legs and body. The use
for legs in locomotion w^as also superseded by arti-
ficial modes of conveyance. Every road and street
in the w^orld was as smooth and clean as a parlor
floor. On these were unlimited facilities for inex-
pensive transportation, public and private, the
power being electric. Besides these were the fly-
ers, also public and private. The life became
almost exclusively a sitting life, even when in mo-
tion, sedentary in the most literal sense. This was,
however, accompanied by the most intense activity

202 Tlic Lunarian Professor

of the brain. These conditions were decidedly
antagonistical to the old system of the nourish-
ment of the body by the stomach and intestines,
because that system had been developed in con-
nection with an active muscular body, and could
be kept in good health only by vigorous muscular
activity. Formerly four-fifths of the blood went
to support digestion and muscular activity, and
one-fifth went to the brain to support the mind.
Increasing mental activity diverted more and more
of the circulation towards the brain, until now it
consumes three-fifths, muscular work takes not
quite two-fifths and digestion and assimilation al-
most none. The result of the changes that con-
stantly pressed in this direction, was that the first
millennium was an age of dyspepsia. The increas-
ing disability of the stomach for digestion, encour-
aged the use of digested foods, and these by ex-
cusing the stomach from doing its proper work, in-
creased its disability. Children at first were usual-
ly born with good stomachs, but these by middle
life or before, commonly degenerated into instru-
ments of miser^^ Finally they would not even
tolerate digested food and it became ncccessary to
convey food within by some other means. Any
method by which the nutritious matter properly
digested can be introduced into the blood wilJ
support life. It became necessary to adopt hypo-
dermic injections and other similar expedients. As
this sort of treatment had to be applied earlier and
earlier in life as time went on, even in some cases
in childhood and infancy, they finally hit on the
plan of using the ancient natural entrance of the

The Millennium 203

umbilicus and not allowing it to close at all dur-
ing life. In this way the ancient system of sup-
port and nutrition for the body through the stom-
ach has been entirely subverted. The chemical
processes of digestion, selection and assimilation of
food are all done outside of the body, by artificial
processes, and the cavity of the body is no longer
filled with a series of brewing vats, soap factories,
gas works and receptacles for refuse filth and
foul water. For we may truly say that digestion
consists of processes of fermentation of several
different kinds and saponification or soap making.
Little or nothing that is now taken into the body
requires to be excreted and the only excretory or-
gans are the skin and lungs, for moisture and car-
bonic dioxide. This radical change was not all
effected at once, but was extended over many gen-
erations, and was not fully consummated till the
second millennium was well spent. But before that
one was finished, the atrophy of the digestive func-
tions was so far complete that cases of possible
reversion to them were extremely rare. The people
of the present time look back with amusement,
commiseration and disgust upon the walking labor-
atories that constituted their ancestors."

''I think," said I, ''that if the people of my
day could see them the amusement would be
mutual. ' '

''Probably it would," he replied, "but if you
should come to compare real advantages, I am of
the opinion they would be entitled to laugh the
loudest. They have decidedly the advantage of
you in the simplicity of their construction and in

204: The Lunarian Professor

their reduced liability to get out of order. An
autopsj^ of this latter day man would reveal a
little shriveled up bit of parchment in the place
where the stomach used to be, and another in the
place where the bladder was, a handful of shoe
strings in the place of the intestines, the total re-
duced in length at least one-half; some little fleshy
nodules like so many beans and peas and hickory
nuts to stand for the kidneys, the pancreas, the
spleen and that ancient terror, the liver. It is
strange that after these organs are thus discarded
and atrophied, nature continues to perpetuate the
remembrance of them by reproducing in every in-
dividual that is born, these odd and grim cari-
catures, like a miserly old woman that carefully
hoards her cellar full of old tin cans and broken
jugs, bottles and dishes — of no use to anybody. —
But this is nature's way. Even in your day your
scientists pointed out numerous remnants of play-
ed-out organs that your race then had about them,
such as the coracoid bone, the tail bones, the ver-
miform appendix, the ear muscles, the pineal
gland and many more. But now there are to be
added, this fresh batch. They will be constantly
reduced in size, one generation after another, but
your race will hardly exist long enough to get rid
of them entirely: but they may congratulate them-
selves that they have ended their mischief and
are no longer functional.

There are also notable changes in the skeleton
of the present man. He no longer has 33 segments
or vertebrae in his back bone as folks had in your
day, but only 23. The seven neck and twelve dor-

The Millennium 205

sal segments remain the same, but the five lumbar
vertebrae are reduced to two, the five sacral and
four tail bones are reduced to one each, much di-
minished in size, the tail a mere button. So he is
much shortened from the diaphragm down.*'

*' Professor," said I, "I confess I am disap-
pointed in this man of the latter days. It is doubt-
less true as you say that he has been greatly im-
proved by getting rid of his troublesome insides.
I was somewhat shocked when you first told me of
it, but on reflection I have no doubt, that although
it seemed at first so strange and unnatural, it
was all for the best. But his stature — I cannot
get over that. He is nothing but a big headed
spindle shanked dwarf. Our dreamers and prophets
of the nineteenth century always pictured the com-
ing man to us as a Hercules with brawny limbs
and muscles of steel; he was never to be less than
six feet high, and he was to be as graceful as he
was powerful and all that. He was to be intellect-
ual, too, of course; a Daniel Webster in brain.
And they seemed to have the experience of the
race in their favor in this prognostication, because
it does not appear that the average stature of the
race diminished any, but probably increased, dur-
ing the 4,000 or 5,000 years before the 20th cen-
tury. Now if it did not decrease for that period,
why should it in the periods following?"

^'During the 4,000 years or more you refer to,
the conditions of life on which stature depend, did
not materially change, for which reason stature
did not. War and field exercises, tend to large
stature. Sedentary employments, tend to reduce

206 The Lunarian Professor

the stature. The latter mode of life has prevailed
for 100,000 years, and besides the general causes
there has been the additional special one in this
case, of the loss of function in a considerable por-
tion of the trunk which would of consequence lose
size in an increased proportion.

But after all it is not physical stature that com-
mands respect, but mental stature. Many of your
greatest men have been of small stature. You
speedily forget one's size when attending to the
actions of his mind. The most dignified presence
is that which impresses itself as the strongest men-
tally. "We consider that to which we are accustom-
ed, as the most correct and proper, in stature as
in everything else. If you had been most ac-
customed to people four feet high, you would
regard six feet people as coarse unwieldy over-
grown monsters, and when you become accustomed
to the people of these times with their gentleness
patience, industry, unselfishness, sympathy and
kindness and unfailing good humor, their ability
ingenuity, almost divine wisdom and learning,
their stature and form will be transformed before
you to become your standard of perfection. In
the abstract, that is the most perfect form that
admits of the accomplishment of the greatest ends.
By this standard the man of this latter day is far
in advance of all that preceded him, because in
no other human form would it ever have been
possible to properly sustain so great a brain.

It may interest you to know that the latter day
man has almost entirely lost the sense of taste, the
sense of smell was already much decayed in your

Universal State and Language 207

day. It is somewhat poorer now, but still fairly
good. The sense of touch is far more delicate than
formerly, hearing equally good, and sight better
for near objects, but not so good for far ones. The
telepathic sense has been remarkably developed
and is one of the subjects of study and drill in the
schools. The adult people of the third sex wear
hats ten inches in diameter. The heads of the
other sexes are somewhat smaller. The longevity
of the race has increased to an average of 200
years, some occasionally reaching 300. The cause
of this is due in part to the greater purity of their
food and the smaller quantity of mineral impuri-
ties, such as lime, that is allowed to clog up the
tissues and vitiate the circulation.

CHAPTER XII.

Universal State and Language.

Soon after the beginning of the first milleninum,
the three great governments of the w^orld were
consolidated into one. This was found desirable
in order to have equal and uniform laws regard-
ing the regulation of population, education the ad-
ministration of justice and the establishment of a
uniform language. This latter object was ac-
complished by means of the universal state schools.
A language was invented on scientific principles,
as to its grammar, with words borrowed from dif-
ferent languages. This was taught, in every school

208 The Lunarian Professor

together with the native language of the country
in which the school was located. This was kept
up for 50 years, by which time practically every-
body understood the new language, and then the
others were dropped from the curriculum and only
the new w^as thenceforth taught. There contin-
ued to be some differences of race however for
several thousand yars, but it is now difficult to
trace any race distinction.

The population of the earth is not now quite
so great as it was in the year 2070. It has grad-
ually been contracted to about 10,000,000,000. It
was much larger during the first millennium, but
the people were much given to flitting about, fol-
lowing the seasons like the birds, in consequence
of which in some places the crowds became too
great for comfort. Eather than make arbitrary
rules to repress travel, they contracted the popula-
tion by increasing the proportion of third sex chil-
dren and diminishing that of the others. You un-
derstand no attempt was ever made to regulate
the size of the family — that was left to nature —
only its sex. The average number of children to
a family has long been about 18, sixteen of whom
are of the third sex. The people live mostly in
cities, but the land is cultivated to such crops as
clover, alfalfa, the grasses etc, the entire crops
being chemicallly treated and the food principles
extracted from them. Large tracts are, however,
reserved for the public. They are beautified and
adorned in every direction — and parks and flower
gardens are everwhere, and here the people are
fond of congregating in pleasant weather wheel-

Universal State and Language 209

iiig their motor cars over the solid smooth road-
ways or flitting about in their flyers. As eating
and drinking are no loger fashionable or practic-
able pastimes, there is a conspicuous absence of
restaurants and saloons. Yet many of the people
are supplied with little vials containing their stand-
ard food of which they partake if need be. But
they have no stated hours for eating, no cooking,
no cooks, no meals. Each one eats when his feel-
ings tell him he needs it, and is not governed by
the appetite of others. Yet, as a practical fact,
most persons do fall into habits of some regulari-
ty. Nature is a stickler for habit."

'*I suppose," said I, ''the state furnishes many
things that were left to individuals to do in my
time, but how is the state supported? Who does
the work?"

** Everybody works, but not much is required
of anyone. The society is largely but not exclu-
sively socialistic. The state makes everything
ncessary for existence, but no superfluities. In
these necessaries it has the monopoly, and no one
else is allowed to make or sell them. The state
thus makes all food and clothing and clothing ma-
terial builds all houses, makes all furniture, carri-
ages, flying machines, furnishes heat, light and
power, takes care of the young and educates them.
Everybody works; is obliged to work in fact for
his living. Eight tenths of the people work for
the state, and not over two-tenths directly for
other employers. In this two-tenths are included
authors, ministers and priests, lecturers on new

210 The Lunarian Professor

and unaccepted theories, artists, some miliners,
dressmakers etc.

The state fixes the wages it will pay according
to the desirability or undesirability of the work,
the undesirable of course being the best paid — the
kind that would have been the worst paid in your
day. An average of one hour a day of labor for
the state will furnish lodging food and necessary
clothing. So in five or six weeks one can lay up
enough to maintain him a year, and have the rest
of his time to do as he pleases. Notwithstanding
the cheapness of everything, nothing is sold by
the state except at a trifling advance upon its cost,
which constitutes the only kind of taxation that is
imposed. The surplus thus raised pays the ex-
penses of state officials, courts, education etc. If
anyone wants more than the modest living he can
get by working at the rate of six weeks in a year;
he can get it by working longer. By working
steadily for a year he can accumulate enough to
travel around the world. Or he can indulge in a
fine painting or two, or a musical instrument or
contribute money to some institution not supported
by the state, as a church or philosophical society.
Or he can lay up money in the state savings in-
stitution, until he accumulates a fortune for some
pet enterprise or for use in old age. For several
thousand years little or nothing has been spent on
new public works. Everything really needed was
long since built on principles of eternal durability,
and repairs are light. Railways, canals etc., of
course pay their own way. On the surface of the

'Universal State and Language 211

earth almost everything may be said to be prac-
tically finished. The largest fields for discovery
are under ground. Stores of mineral wealth never
dreamed of in your day have been unearthed and
utilized. Thousands of miles of tunnels have been
constructed and some mountain ranges have been
perforated in so many directions that their in-
teriors are more familiar than their bleak and in-
hospitable surfaces. Enormous unsuspected caves
and openings have been found, from many of which
the contained material was ejected by volcanic ac-
tion in ancient times.

In a great number of places tunnels have pene-
trated to regions of insupportable heat, and this
heat transformed into electricity has been convey-
ed to the surface and its power distributed to great
distances. This plan has been largely practiced in
the mountainous regions of Asia and South Amer-
ica, Scandinavia, Alaska and other countries. In
such regions heat can be reached without descend-
ing, and so the tunnels are self draining. This
source of power helps out the sun in the rainy
seasons etc."

''You mentioned something about state savings
institutions just now; I suppose they receive the
money of the people and pay interest on it — or
how?"

"The state savings institutions receive money
and take care of it, but they pay no interest. They
do not loan it, so get no income from it and can-
not pay any. In fact their fundamental ideas of
business have undergone a radical change for these
many ages back. They deny that it is fair busi-

212 Tlie Lunarian Professor

ness to take a profit on any transaction. If a man
lends his money to another he is entitled to pay
for the time it takes him to make the loan and
collect it, but he is not entitled to interest for use
of 'the money. If a man borrows a plow worth ten
dollars and wears it to the amount of one dollar,
he should pay the owner the one dollar, but it is
for repairs, not interest. If he borrows ten dollars
in money and returns the full amount there is no
wear to make good. If a man borrows ten dollars
for which he must pay one dollar interest, then
buys a plow and w^ears it one dollar's worth he is
out two dollars. So he must charge one dollar
above its cost, for his crop, when he sells it, and
this is called profit. He does not keep it, how-
ever, but must pass it over to the capitalist. He
might charge two dollars profit, in which case, he
would keep one for his profit and give the other
to the capitalist for his. In both cases they say, it
is w^rong and unsound as a business transaction,
because it is getting or giving something for
nothing. The idea of the legitimacy of profits and
interest arose in ancient times in connection with
the uncertainty or the gambling element that en-
tered into all business. This was due to individ-
ualism or the practice of each one doing business
for himself, taking his own risks and chances in
a thousand ways. If one spent his time and money
in making something to sell, he was not absolute-
ly sure he would be able to find a buyer. And
if one loaned his money to be used in business he
shared the risks of it and could not be absolute-
ly sure of getting it back again. Up to the amount

Universal State and Language 213

of the risks, profit and interest were under the con-
ditions legitimate. But while under the individual
system everybody charged for the risk of loss,
the losses in reality fell on only a part, and so
the rest got something for nothing. When insur-
ance companies were organized to distribute part
of the risks, making those who did not lose, con-
tribute to make up the loss of those who did,
the risks of all were diminished, and the profit and
interest charges on that account reduced. If in-
surance with its distribution of risks had extended
to every form of risk, and if the members of the
companies or insured persons had embraced every-
one in the community instead of only a part, then
the special risks to each one would have been ?J-
together eliminated, the insurance would have be-
come a part of the cost of the goods to be added
to their sale value, and profits above this no longer
legitimate. For if one is entitled to profits so are
all those with whom he exchanges and nobody
gains; unless the profits of one are higher than
those of another in which case someone is cheated
or in other words robbed. Now when the state
undertook practically all business and all trans-
portation, and owned all houses, shops and fac-
tories, ail risks of all forms were at once distribut-
ed to ail the people, without the ceremony of in-
surance. If a building burned, or tools, or ma-
chinery became superseded by better ones, or goods
became unsalable, or employes dishanest, or incom-
petent, the loss was fully insured, for it fell upon
all, and there was nobody outside of this **aH" to
make it good. There could therefore be no possi-

214 The Lunarian Professor

ble honest end to be gained by profits ; and interest
on money falls with profits. As all the people
work some time or other and receive wages, all
have a bank account, for they are taught to be
careful and economical, and they understand that
one cannot spend a dollar and still have it."

*'How do they encourage and paj^ for inventions
and discoveries — or has everything been invented
and discovered?"

"No, they are discovering something new all
the time. A good many people Avho have got
something ahead and have leisure find congenial
employment in invention. If they produce any-
thing valuable the state takes and uses it pajang
them for their time, and also distinguishing them
by honorable mention and in some cases by dec-
orations or medals. If the development of the
idea requires the use of expensive machinery or
materials, it is submitted to the judgment, of
experts whether the would be inventor shall be
furnished these things at public expense. If they
think his idea not of sufficient value, he must
either drop it or pursue it at his own expense, and
take his chances of getting the glory and the
pay when it is demonstrated, and these considera-
tions seem to be enough to bring out their best
endeavor in that line."

''Then it seems they don't value brain work
any higher than hand work?"

*'They value brains, but do not pay extra for
them for the reason that they regard them as
owing their best thoughts to the state. They say,
that whatever one is, the state has made him, and

Universal State and Language 215

if he is above the average he owes more than the
average."

''Did you say, Professor, that the houses belong
to the state?"

"Yes the state has built houses enough to ac-
commodate the whole population. In each town
or city the houses are of uniform height for that
place. Thus there are tw^o story towns or four or
ten story towns. A very large place may be twen-
ty or thirty stories in the middle and lower furth-
er out. But no differences are allowed on any
block. The roofs are flat and continuous over
each block and connected with neighboring blocks
by bridges over the streets. The flyers are all
kept on the roofs and the flyers' entrance to the
buildings is by a roof entrance connecting with the
elevator. Wheeled vehicles are kept upon the
streets. There are generally vacant apartments to
be had if any one wishes to move from one city to
another. But the population has its fads and
whims and sometimes the popularity of some place
will attract more people than the houses can ac-
commodate. In that case the government will
build some new houses. Houses are rented by the
year for one per cent of their cost plus the one-
fifth of one per cent for repairs. The latter sum
is paid back to the tenant if the repairs are not
required. Thus if a house costs ten thousand dol-
lars, the rent would be one hundred, the theory be-
ing that its cost would be repaid in 100 years.
But as houses last 1,000 years — in fact are in-
destructible except by an earthquake — the state
has accumulated a large fund from rents of houses

216 The Lunarian Professor

that have long since paid for themselves, and this
fund builds new ones when they are wanted."

''I suppose there is no woodwork used in build-
ing a house."

''They use what they call wood, but it is an
artificial product made of mineral. It is almost as
light as wood, can be cut and formed as wood can,
but is much stronger and cannot be burned and
never rots. By slight differences in its manufac-
ture several varieties are produced imitating vari-
ous sorts of wood. It has totally displaced wood
and is used for all purposes from fine furniture to
railway ties. It is the accumulation of indestruti-
ble things that makes existence so cheap in these
latter daj's. The people enjoy the fruits of labor
performed ages ago. And the things they make
now are all made to endure. Even their clothes
are made to last a life time — textile fabrics from
mineral wool and mineral cotton. Even their food
is provided for years ahead. It is put up in vials,
and sealed up to keep a hundred years if re-
quired."

"What is it composed of?"

"It is in several modifications suited to differ-
ent ages. In infancy and youth its composition
is almost exactly that of a hen's egg. For mature
and old people the proportions are slightly differ-
ent, the lime is entirely left out for the old, and a
larger proportion of phosphorus is used in the
food of the middle aged and m'entally active."

"If they can put together the material for a
hen's egg," said I, "what's the trouble with hatch-
iuf? a chicken out of it."

Universal State and Language 217

''They can make all of the egg except the germ.
That has been proved in this way. They take the
germ out of a real hens egg^ and put it into a
shell filled with the artificial food, then apply the
proper temperature and it is hatched in the usual
time and all the food consumed. This is a com-
mon experiment."

''That is good proof that their food is the right
material for chicks at any rate."

"Well there is plenty of scientific proof of the
correctness of all the different modifications. An-
alyses have repeatedly been made of human bodies
of different ages and their exact constituents with
their proportions ascertained and thus it is knoAvn
precisely what they require for food. And when
this is taken with a sufficient quantity of dis-
tilled or electrically purified water there is no
liability of being hungry and little of being sick.
At any rate the general health and regularly in-
creasing longevity of the people proves better than
any theorizing the general correctness of their
way of life. There is no longer any such thing as
a patent medicine, a pill, or a powder, and there
are no medical practitioners. There are surgeons;
and there are scientific chemical professors, whose
advice regarding the proper food is sometimes ask-
ed. But almost all distempers they are liable to,
are rectified by self treatment; study of hygiene
and the conditions of animal life being taught in
the schools, not in a sciolous or smattering way
but thoroughly and scientifically; for they say no
knowledge is so essential to all people as this. It
is by using scientifically adapted food that they

218 The Lunarian Professor

have succeeded in extending the average duration
of life, and they claim that they will yet raise it
to a thousand years. They are right in saying
that decay and death from old age are due to the
clogging up of the system with foreign matter that
can neither be assimilated and taken into the
tissues, nor ejected from the system. Their reme-
dy for this is the prevention of the introduction of
such substances by keeping them entirely out of
the food. This they have nearly succeeded in do-
ing, since the body is no longer the tenement of
a chemical works to so very large an extent, as it
used to be. 2>lanufacture of these deleterious resi-
duums inside the body is nearly stopped. The
intelligent selection of the food then, with cleanli-
ness and protection from cold constiute the prin-
ciples of their treatment. Epidemic diseases have
long since been entirely abolished.

The organic germs that caused these diseases
depended on swanps, stagnant pools, and decaying
animal and vegetable matter for nests in which to
be cultivated, and from such places they Avere
conveyed by the air or water and so reached the
fluids of the human body in which their further
cultivation went on, to the great grief of your
race. Now there is not a swamp nor any such
thing in all the world, and nothing whatever is
allowed to decay. Everything that grows is either
utilized or cremated. All refuse from the numer-
ous chemical works is treated electrically and re-
turned to the soil as a fertilizer. The water in
their sewers is often not so very much worse than
that which used to run in your water pipes, but

Universal Siate and Language 219

it is ail electrically treated and the precipitated
sediment returned to the land while, only the clear
Avater is turned into the rivers.

''I suppose they no longer keep domestic ani-
mals/' said I.

"They no longer keep them for use to any
great extent, but they have preserved specimens of
all the domestic animals, and some of those that
were wild in your day as objects of curiosity. They
also have some in the country as pets. There ar.^
a few wild animals in some of the large state
parks that having never been disturbed have prac-
tically tamed themselves. Animal power passed
out of use ages ago. The people are scrupulously
nice in their ideas of cleanliness and so no animals
of any sort, not even canary birds are allowed in
the cities. In this respect they look back with un-
limited disgust upon the people of your day with
their filthy horses and dogs perambulating and
befouling the streets, their stables, stores and meat
shops full of the odors of decaying vegetable and
animal matter, their accumulations of ashes and
cinders and dust, and of filth and garbage in foul
cess pools, barrels, gutters, vaults and sey/ers, their
personal habits of eating and drinking with their
sequelae and the necessary cooking and dishwash-
ing, and their smoking and tobacco chewing and
spitting. All this is done away v/ith, and the peo-
ple can hardly understand a mode of life in which
it w^as included; much less necessary.

The streets of the cities are as clean as a draw-
ing room, and it is easy to keep them so since
there is so little occasion for them being soiled.

220 The Lunarian Professor

They use only electricallj^ purified water or rain
water, and far less than was consumed in your
day. The houses are all fireproof and the fire de-
partments have very little use for water, using
chemical extinguishers. The factories for the man-
ufacture of food stuffs, the mineral wood, furn-
iture, vehicles textile fabrics etc., are usuallj^
placed in suburbs at a little distance from the
cities, and the working people pass back and forth
by the cars or flyers. The usual day's work is 4
to 6 hours and all sorts of work is paid by the
hour. Manufactured goods are stored in the busi-
ness quarters of the cities, and delivered where
ordered as in your day, but by more exact and
complete means.

There has not for many ages been any sexual
distinction in clothes, and the slavery of fashion
was long ago abolished. The costumes show the
individuality of their owners and are extremely
various; a mixed company looking like a congress
of the nations of your day.

"How do they manage their political affairs,''
I inquired.

''They can scarcely be said to have any local
political affairs to be managed. They have very
large and extensive business affairs, and they are
managed as business and not as politics. All the
employes in the several business departments of
the state are first taken from the schools where
they have been educated and prepared for the
occupations they Avished to be qualified to follow.
All vacancies to responsible places are filled on
civil service principles. The foremen receive a

tiniversal State and Language 221

little higher wages than the common hands, but
nobody receives any profits except the tax or tariff
the state puts on goods it makes and sells.

The workers in each particular trade or occu-
pation in any state form a society or guild, pre-
sided over by a board or commission elected by the
members of the guild from a list of candidates who
have passed examination for competency. There
is another board elected by the whole people that
has the general oversight of all business and the
equalization of wages.

The guild board receives from the state the
raw material it consumes and is charged with it.
It sees to its distribution among the shops of the
guild, receives and turns over to the state the
articles made by the guild, certifies to the pay
rolls, and to the cost of the articles made. It de-
termines the amount of material required and the
number of men that shall be employed, basing its
regulation on the requisition of the general board
for the goods which in turn gets its data from the
store keepers who make requisitions on the board
according to the public demand for the goods.
The guild board determines the number of men
it can employ and if it has too many the fact is
reported to the general board whose business it is
to find work for the surplus men in another trade.
The guild board naturally anxious to preserve the
credit of its own guild, always selects the least
competent of their men for transfer. The gen-
eral board is constantly posted as to the demand
for labor in the different guilds and can usually
assign the men to places suited to their capacity,

222 The Lunarian Professor

wliich commonly admits of more or less variety of
employment, their school education being conduct-
ed with that view. If the trades are all full or if
the men prove unfit to perform such skilled labor
as is required, they are furnished laboring work
not requiring skill of which there is always plen-
ty in the procurement of raw materials for food,
minerals, agricultural products, building materials
etc. As most of the things produced including
food can be kept an indefinite length of time, there
is no objection to a considerable accumulation
ahead. When this happens and it often does, the
community is in a prosperous condition for it has
more than enough. It is a sign that the workmen
have saved their money instead of buying goods
with it. They may knock off w^ork and take holi-
day till the stocks are reduced. Sometimes the
fashion changes, and the state has something on
hand it cannot sell. Like any other manufacturer
it must sell at a sacrifice for what it can get, and
use better judgment next time. The general board
looks out for that. This board also equalizes wages
in the several trades, lowering the pay in those
trades into which there is the greatest tendency to
crowd and raising it in those that are deserted.
Striking in a body is not allowed. But many or
all the members of a guild may give notice of an
intention to leave, and they are then allowed to
do so, a small number at a time. The general
board inquires into the cause of the dissatisfaction
and rectifies it if possible. If the wages are high
enough the fact will be proved by other workmen
coming from other trades or other places to take

Universal State and Language 223

the job, in which case the disgruntled men must
take such other work as the board can find for
them or remain idle if they prefer to. If they are
not high enough the vacancies will remain unfilled
till the board raises them.

When men are idle, by no fault of their own,
but because all places are filled, the state is bound
to feed and clothe them. This is the theory, but
it is very rarely put into practice. Since they
prefer to let them work at something rather than
be idle even if the work is not in great demand.**

''They seem to have but little use for apothe-
caries and doctors, how about lawyers and courts?"

''There is no such thing nov/ as the practice of
law as formerly understood. In your day the
lawyer was called an officer of the court. But in
reality he Vv^as a partizan of one of the litigants
bent on gaining a victory for his client regardless
of the justice of his cause; and he often gained it
when he knew it was unjust. Each town or dis-
trict is supplied with a board of lawyers three,
five or seven according to population, and these
comprise the court. They are elected by the peo-
ple from the law graduates of the state school,
for a definite term. Any small case is heard by
either one of the lawyers upon whom both liti-
gants can agree, both sides being heard and wit-
nesses examined by him. If either litigant is
dissatisfied with his decision he may appeal to the
full bench, whose decision by a majority is final
on questions of fact. But if a minority dissents
on points of law a further appeal as to the law is
allowed to be made to the Supreme Court of the

2.24 The Lunarian Professor

state, the dissenting minority preparing the ease
for the higher court, and the majority preparing
the counter case in defense of their decision. The
defeated party pays the costs. These, however,
are comparatively light, lawyers receiving no high-
er pay than mechanics. But as the position brings
distinction there are always enough candidates for
it. They are only paid as lawyers for the actual
time spent b}' them, and often increase their in-
come by other employment; for there is but a
small amount of litigation.

The criminal procedure is almost as simple.
A person accused of a petty crime is brought be-
fore a single lawyer who examines the witnesses
for both sides and decides the case, if the accused
is not satisfied he appeals to the full bench, and
the minority of that bench may carry an appeal
on questions of law to the Supreme Court. In
important cases the legal bench may summon the
bench of a neighboring town or district to sit with
them in the case and share the responsibility. There
is no criminal class and crime of any sort is very
rare. It is regarded as an insanity and a family
in which it is developed is at once prevented from
going further in the hereditary transmission of it.
There is no capital punishment."

''Well," said I, "they are an interesting peo-
ple; they seem to have things about the way they
want them and I reckon they ought to be happy."

*'Yes," he said, ''they ought to be, and they
are; as much so as any intelligent creatures can
be. You may know they are good natured, jolly
and generous from the size of their mouths. The

Mars mid the Martians

size of their heads is a guaranty that whatever is
knowable on earth they are pretty sure to find
out if you give them time enough; and renders
probable the inference that they know that they
are well off, and know enough to be contented.
And as a matter of fact they are; and while they
congratulate themselves, they never fail to call
up in grateful remembrance the ancestors througli
whose martyrdom they have attained peace Well
we must now take our leave of this large hearted
and large headed posterity of yours and return to
the nineteenth century.
Ah! here we are!"

CHAPTER XIII.
Mars and the Martians.

The Professor at this point turned about, took
hold of the wire that anchored his car and slowly
pulled it to the ground. I saw I was about to lose
him, but felt that I ought not to try to detain him
any longer.

I thanked him cordially for the invaluable visit
he had given me and told him I hoped it might be
repeated He nodded his head in acquiescence, by
which I understood, I might expect him some time
again. I went on to congratulate him on the hap-
py home he was returning to and the long agree-

^26 The Lunarian Professor

able rest that awaited Lim there after this fatigu-
ing journey.

He smiled -with his great eyefi, and thanked
me for my good wishes, but said he was destined
to no such rest as I w^ished him.

"From the moment I reach home," said he,
**I shall be as busy as I can be for a week, pre-
paring for my journey to Mars."

"Your journey to Mars!" I exclaimed, "do you
mean to say you go to Mars?"

"I have been there only three times myself;
but our people have visited that planet for the
last ten thousand years, and there is quite a colony
of Lunarians permanently settled there looking
after our interests."

' ' So you have interests on Mars ! Well now this
is interesting. I v>dsh I had known this before.
I would give anything for information about Mars
and the Martians."

"Well it will take me a little tim.e to arrange
my car and I can talk to you while I am doing
it. You see our folks first went there about 10,000
years ago. They found the planet inhabited by
two bitterly hostile races that did little else than
hunt each other."

"They must be like our race then," I observed.

"Yes," he said, "in respect to their warlike
instincts, but not as to their forms. They are not
human nor even vertebrate, but they are built on
the radiate plan. In short they are almost exact-
ly like your star fishes, but enormously bigger. I
have seen them as large as twelve feet across,
though their more common size at maturity is

Mars and the Martians ^^^

six to eight feet. The difference between the two
races is that in one there are six spokes or limbs
radiating from the central body and in the other
there are but five. These limbs may be called
either legs or arms, for they serve as either and
are sometimes one and sometimes the other. There
is a fleshy disc that forms the extremity of each
limb, around which like the petals of a flower are
the flngers or toes, about like so many thumbs.
There are six of these in the six legged race and
five in the five legged. This disc with its thumbs
forms the foot vrhen the individual walks on land.
Two of them are always on the ground when he
is standing, while the other four are free to be
used as hands, these thumbs being opposable and
able to grasp tolerably well.

When they move on land it is always in an up-
right position, and they roll along edgewise like a
wheel destitute of felloes rolling on the ends of
the spokes. The central piece or hub constitutes
the body including the stomach, heart, lungs etc.,
as well as the sense organs and brain. The shape
of the body is like a short stout cylinder tapering
to a rounded point at each end from one and a
half to two feet in diameter, the legs radiatin^^
from the sides. At the center of one end of this
body is the mouth, and the brain is located all
round it in what we would call the cheeks. There
is no neck. There are six eyes immediately around
the mouth corresponding with the six legs, and
just outside of the eyes are six ear holes with
closable lips, but no outside flaps or shells. Out-
side of these are six breathing or blow holes lead-

^2$ The Lunarian Professor

ing into the lungs. The mouth is round and the
lips pucker together when closing. There is no
up or down to the Martian man, he stands equally
well on any pair of his legs and handles equally
well with any of his hands, and this is one of his
greatest drawbacks. He has a thick horny skin
w^hich appears to have been the only skeleton pos-
sessed by his ancestors, but in addition, he has
a light internal skeleton developed later by the
practice of standing and running on his limbs,
which consists of a lot of plates and hoop like
ribs in the body, and what would pass for thigh
and leg bones in each limb. These last are hung
w^ith ball and socket joints both at the articula-
tion with the body and at the elbow^ and wrist. The
limbs are thus remarkably supple and when the
Martian has a mind to, he can walk extremely
well sideways on two legs, that is, the head or
mouth going forward. And this is the way he
should walk as our people long ago pointed out
to the Martians. He can walk on the same two
feet continuously edgwise as the w^heel goes, but
to do this he must merely drag the rear foot up
to the front one, and then throw^ the front ont;
forward again, or else sling them around past each
other alternately in an awkward manner as a cow
does, for the reason that they are all on the same
plane. They greatly prefer the rolling motion
and roll off on their spokes with surprising speed,
twenty miles an hour being a common gait on a
good road while some of the gigantic twelve foot-
ers can if necessary reel off forty or more.

They are so extremely fond of traveling off

Mars and tJie Mariiaiis 229

in this manner, that it is difficult for them to
confine their attention to any sedentary employ-
ment. In order to attain a high civilization people
must be settled, and occupy themselves in some
definite and constant modes of employment. We
pointed out to them long ago that they could never
have well differentiated arms and hands, unless
they set apart certain of their limbs to be used
exclusively as arms, and never allow the hands
thus set apart for handling, to be used as feet.

They objected, that, to confine themselves to
two legs for walking would reduce their gait to
five or six miles an hour. This would be a great
draw-back in war, and give their undifferentiated
enemies the advantage over them. This objection
no longer has much weight, since war has entirely
ceased among them, the five legged race having
long since been defeated and practically exter-
minated, the few that are left being glad to accept
the most obscure positions that will secure them
a bare existence."

''They must have been terrific warriors.'*
*'I saw a regiment of the six legged men drill-
ing once. They were marshaled on a large plain
in two ranks, and rolled backward and forward
fast or slow according to command with great
precision. They then were commanded to load
and advance. Around the body in the spaces be-
tween the limbs they had artificial leathern pouches
in which they carried their ammunition. When
they received the command to load they took out
of these pouches six stones one for each hand,
and they advanced vv^th them clasped between

230 The Lunarian Professor

their stumpj^ fiugers. Then they were command-
ed to double quick and discharge, upon which
they advanced at terrific speed and at a
given signal let fly the stones one after another
as the hand containing it came to the proper posi-
tion for the most effective throw. The centrifugal
force they acquired from the long revolving arms
sent them with tremendous force, som.e going at
least a mile. In real war they used cast iron bul-
lets. The}^ have plenty of iron on Mars and our
folks taught them how to smelt and work it. The
regiment then charged up to a hand to hand en-
counter with an imaginary enemy. In this charge
they were armed with a heavy circular iron disc
in each hand, the disc having a handle on the back
side by which it was held. Then they charged
with terrific fury the discs flying around like
lightning, chopping into mince meat, (in imagina-
tion) any enemy that dared stand before them.

The government is a despotism, the king having
about the same authority as the emperor of Rus-
sia, although he has a council of state v/hose advice
he listens to, and then does as he pleases. Since
the subjugation of the five legged race this king
is the supreme ruler of the whole planet. In some
districts the people have made considerable ad-
vances in civilization, confining themselves to tlio
use of tw^o legs, and walking sidev;ise instead of
rolling edgewise. But the king does not want all
his subjects to adopt these innovations, for he is
very proud of his soldiers and thinks them more
efficient on six legs than tv/o. Besides, for cer-

Mars and the MarUans 231

tain kinds of labor, especially drawing wagons and
carriages, the old way is the best."

*'Why don't they use horses," I inquired, "or
haven't they any?'*

"There are no such animals on M!ars, nor in
fact any other sort of animals except radiates.
There are many genera of these, mostly living in
the water and all small, except the dominant race,
which I call the Martians.

But there are great differences in the conditions
of life amongst the people of this race, some be-
ing fairly civilized while others are only beasts
of burden, and still others take the place of dumb
machines. They are specially adapted to act as
wheels for light carriages. The axles of the car-
riage are terminated at each end with a six prong-
ed fork, the prongs arranged in a circle or cylin-
der so that when a man is to play the role of
wheel, he is impaled on this fork one prong of it
fitting snugly between each pair of his legs. A
vehicle of this kind is specially adapted for soft
roads as the broad disc like feet prevent sinking.

The king has a phaeton mounted on twelve
foot specimens of these lively wheels, in which he
dashes around at a thirty or forty mile gait when
the fancy strikes him. He also has a royal barge
propelled by the same sort of wheels, the legs
acting as paddles.

The king is imitated in his fads by the nobility
and gentry as far as they are able, and so one
may quite often see these live wheel phaetons, and
live-paddle boats moving about.

On the public roads, vehicles are used having

233 TIlc Lunar lath Professor

wheels such as you use, and drawn by these creat-
ures, yoked together in pairs by the pronged shafts
or axles like those I just described. From 5 to
10 pairs may sometimes be seen tugging at one of
these heavy freight Avagons. They are tremend-
ously strong and their strength counts for vastly
more on the planet Mars than it would on the
earth, because ]}.Iars being so much smaller every-
thing weighs very much less. I have seen some
of those big fellows after rolling a few hundred
yards with great speed give a leap from the ground
and fly whirling through the air for two hundred
feet before they lit."

*'They are a wonderful race,'* said I, *'but it
seems difficult to connect intelligence with a tribe
of star fishes or to imagine they could ever be-
come highly developed. You know those we have
on earth are very low in the scale of existence."

** Intelligence," said the Professor, *'does not
depend on the form. Any form on which it is
possible for the forces of the environment such as
light heat contact etc., to make an impression, al-
ready has intelligence; the ability to be impressed
is intelligence. If any organism can be impressed,
then if you give it time enough it can be im-
pressed indefinitely, because each impression dif-
ferentiates it and adds to its sensitiveness, that is,
its ability to be further impressed. The reason
why inferior races so generally remain inferior is
the jealousy and hostility of the superior. The
dominant race is always hostile to any other race
that shows any intelligence, and proceeds to kill
it ofi; for fear it will become a rival. It is thus

Mars and the Martians 233

that the race of man has no rivals that compare
with him in intelligence, no ''connecting links" be-
tween him and the monkeys. He was jealous of
them and exterminated them.

On the planet Mars there were never any forms
of animal^ superior to the stars so they have re-
ceived all the development. Their differentiation
would have advanced further if the planet itself
had not been so backward. It has a great deal
more water on it in proportion to its size than the
earth. It is destitute of high mountains, and very
much of its surface is but little raised above the
level of the sea. A great deal of it is marshy. It
is only in recent geologic times that it has become
well suited to life on land. When it became so,
the star fxshes crawled out, and by degrees be-
came accustomed to that mode of life as well as
their aquatic mode. If there had been any land
animals there to attack them when they first vent-
ured to leave the water, of course they would have
been prevented from ever rising. But there were
no enemies and they gradually developed lungs
by which they were enabled to live continuously
out of water. At first they crawled about like
spiders with all their feet on the ground at once,
but after awhile they learned to raise themselves
up on edge and finally to roll from one foot to
another, and so gradually adopted a new and
wonderfully advanced mode of locomotion.

They are still semiaquatic and amphibious, and
they have both lungs and gills. They do not bring
forth their young alive, but the female lays eggs
in the water, the wealthy families having little

234 The Lunarian Professor

tanks kept at a proper temperature. The females
of the poor and rougher classes simply go to the
nearest pond and deposit their eggs and leave them
to their fate. Nine times out of ten, however, the
warmth of the water is sufficient to hatch out the
tiny stars which swim around in the water without
any care or bother to their parents. They then
use only their gills for breathing, but in a few
weeks their lungs are developed enough to permit
them to crawl out on land and remain awhile. They
do this daily and finally are able to remain out
continuously. Some of the lowest classes, the
savages as the are called, never lose their gills,
but continue to be amphibious all their lives. They
spend their days on shore and mingle with the
rest, but at night retire to the water in which they
sleep and eat, feeding upon a tender and nutri-
tious grass that groAvs in the water and in marshy
places. This grass also constitutes a considerable
part of the food of the better classes, but they
generally cook it. In winter time these savages
burrow in the mud at the bottom of the ponds and
marshes and canals and go into a sort of torpid
condition and remain there till spring. The more
advanced classes cannot do this, they remain out
of the water continuously after they are fairly
weaned from it, and lose the use of their gills so
that they cannot breathe under water at all. So
there is almost as much difference between differ-
ent varieties of these strange people so far as civili-
zation is concerned as between men and some of
their domestic animals.

''Professor," said I, "a moment ago you men-

Mars and the Martians 235

tioned the canals. Our astronomers have seen
these and puzzled themselves greatly in regard to
them, now you can tell me all about them I am
sure."

"Yes, I intended to tell you about them, I un-
derstand their history well. That's where Vv^e sunk
our money, or at least a great part of it."
''What, in the canals?"
'*Yes — that is, in their construction."
*'Do you mean that the Lunarians went and
dug those canals on Mars ? ' '

''I will explain. As I said awhile ago when
our folks first visited Mars the people were in a
very barbarous state, but still seemed to have
some idea of bettering their condition. They were
much impressed by the superiority of the Lunarians
and were anxious to get their advice as to the
best way of improving their own situation. The
inhabitants then all lived along the shores of the
seas while the interior of the continents were un-
inhabited and for the most part unexplored. The
Lunarians by the help of their v/ings and their
repulsio-gravitation cars were in a position to
make the exploration and in a short time gained
a general knowledge of the topography of the
planet. They found high land over both the poles,
but all the middle parts are lov/. There were
numerous ponds and lakes of fresh water, with
marshy outlets to the seas, which are very salty.
There were no rivers except a few small ones in
the high lands. As the Martians were amphibious
and had always been accustomed to salt water,
the Lunarians doubted whether they could live in

236 The Lunarian Professor

the interior where the water was fresh. But they
saw that it would be necessary to scatter the peo-
ple away from the sea shore, divert their thoughts
from war by finding peaceful occupations for them,
and to create artificial wants for them since their
very few natural wants were all bountifully sup-
plied w^ith little or no effort on their part. The
climate of Mars is much like that of the temperate
parts of the earth, but its polar regions are never
so cold nor its equatorial regions so hot.

In summer time these people had no use for
clothes, for it was warm enough without them. In
winter they had ahvays gone into winter quarters
under water remaining in a torpid inactive con-
dition till spring. When they found the Lunarians
never did so, they v.-ere anxious to imitate them.
But they could not stand the cold without clothes
and houses artificially heated. So some rude cloth-
ing was made of grass, and some huts built under
instructions from the Lunarians and the king and
some of the better classes undertook to keep alive,
as they called it, all winter. They were quick to
perceive that they could thus add much time to
their lives, for the winters of i\Iars last some 300
days out of the 687 that constitute his year. At
first it Avas hard to work into the new way, but af-
ter one or two generations had been kept from
hibernating from childhood, it came to be a second
nature to their descendants, and now all the better
classes have outgrov/n it, only the savages, who
are merely beasts of burden continue to go into
the torpid state and not all of these. This change
of nature in these people, made it essential to have

Mars and the Martians 23?

houses and clothes and also to secure food to be
kept through the winter thus creating the wants
that would compel the people to employ their mus-
cles and brains, and so insure their cultivation and
development. The chief food of the people con-
sisted of the grass I have mentioned which grows
only in water and at that time only in salt water.
It grows in thick pulpy stems and is very rich in
sugar oil and gelatine. This vegetable product
was obtainable only along the sea shore in shal-
low water and in salt-water marshes formed by
the sea. The new way of life demanded at least
one half more food than the old for each person,
and it also led to a rapid increase in the popula-
tion. These causes made it essential to devise
some way of increasing the production of food,
the most obvious way being the increase of the
area of shallow salt water. This the king under-
took to do, but made small progress, for neither
he nor his council knew anything about engineering,
or the management of such works.

The Lunarians who had been observing matters
and things, and studying the situation very close-
ly and shrewdly, now came forward with a pro-
position for a very comprehensive scheme of public
works — or rather several schemes in one.

238 Til e Lun ar ia n Professor

CHAPTER XIV.

The Canals.

First was a plan for increasing the salt water
area by means of a system of broad channels or
canals reaching inland from the oceans with a
view of extending them from ocean to ocean as
soon as practicable so as to enable the tidal cur-
rents to flow entirely through, thus insuring sea
w^ater in the very interior. It was proposed to
make these narrow at first, but to widen them as
the population increased and greater area became
necessary for cultivation. After the main canals
should have become well advanced it was design-
ed to build branches and intersecting lines in such
directions as might be deemed most advantageous.

The Lunarians proposed to the king to have this
work done by a great stock company, one-half the
stock to be ov/ned by the king and the other half
by them. They were to make the surveys and
direct the work and handle the funds of the cor-
poration making use of their mechanical and ex-
ecutive ability and great experience in finance and
engineering. The government was to pay a bonus
to this company of 100 kiks* per acre for every
acre made available for cultivation. The capital

A Kik is worth about lo cents American money.

The Canals 239

stock was fixed at 200 kiks per acre to be issued
to the stockholders as fast as the work was com-
pleted, the king to receive 100 kiks as his share
and the Lunarians the other 100. As fast as the
canals were completed they were to be turned over
to the state and become its property, and in pay-
ment for this the state was to guarantee an an-
nual dividend or interest of five per cent on that
portion of the capital stock owned by the Lunar-
ians. The king was not well informed on finan-
cial matters and inquired the meaning of five per
cent interest, and was told that it meant the pay-
ment of half a kik to the owner of every ten kiks
of stock which such owner was to receive in lieu
of all other profits and reward for his labor and
investment and vhich he the king as the head of
the government was to guarantee. The king was
satisfied to do this — more than satisfied in fact.

He said: *' Gentlemen, I am a great King! what
care I for half a kik." Then with a prodigal
wave of all his disengaged limbs he exclaimed
*'make it a whole kik."

But our Lunarians were not to be outdone in
liberality by the king, and while admitting that
five per cent was ridiculously small, modestly de-
clined to take any more. The king then inquired
why they did not include his stock in the proposed
guaranty. "Why should not I be guaranteed as
well as you?" To this they replied that they
purposely left his out because, first, he was him-
self the government, and so he would simply be
guaranteeing himself; in the second place, if his
stock were not named in this guarantee he need

240 The Lunarian Professor

not be confined to 5 per cent, but could as well
take 10 or 20. The king having been satisfied on
this point they cautiously unfolded their next pro-
position which was that they should have security
in the shape of a mortgage for the payment of the
5 per cent interest, and that in case of default on
the payment of said interest it should become a
lien against the state and thence forward be en-
titled to draw interest the same as the original
stock. *'0 king," said they, **we sincerely wish
you might live forever. If v/e were sure you would
we would never think of asking security. But
Martians and Lunarians all die when their time
comes, while this great corporation will be im-
mortal. Some time in the future a king may arise
who, while enjoying the blessings and comforts of
civilization will forget what they w^ere due to and
w^ill refuse to carry out Your Majesty's contract,
about pajang this interest."

**Well," said the King, *'what security do you
want?"

They said they would be contented with a mort-
gage covering Faithless Jack and Blind Lucy, and
the two frigid zones of Mars."

I may say here that the frigid zones of Mars
cover the polar ends of the planet and extend 28°.
42' from the poles. I understood this much, but
did not know who were meant by Faithless Jack
and Blind Lucy. The Professor proceeded to ex-
plain.

**Mars as you know has two funny little moons.
Your Astronomers have named them Deimos and
Phobos. But the Martians call them by names that

The Canals 241

are equivalent to Faithless Jack and Blind Lucy.
These names belong to an ancient mythical legend,
which I will relate to you. In very ancient times
there were a pair of lovers named Jack and Lucy.
Lucy was reputed to be the most beautiful lady
that ever walked on six feet. Her six eyes were
quite unique, being alternately red and yellow —
three of each color. She was over eight feet high
when she stood up and was noted for the grace
and dignity of her menners, and the captivating
way in v/hich she walked, her feet coming down
one after another in perfect time and with a ryth-
mic pit-a-pat pit-a-pat almost inaudible from the
softness of her tread, but which was nothing less
than inspired music. Her disposition Vv^as as charm-
ing as her porson. She had a kind v/ord for every
one, and was always doing som.e one a favor.

Jack on the other hand was exceedingly ill
favored. It could not be said exactly that he
was the ugliest or the most disagreeable young
gentleman in the community, but a great many
v/ere his superiors in every wa:/, and how it hap-
pened that Lucy fell in love with him could never
be accounted for, but she did, to an excessive de-
gree. To look at the Martians you might not
suspect them of being very sentimental or affec-
tionate, but they are, and their form in a manner
compels them to be demonstrative. AMien a couple
walk together they cannot lock arms or take
hold of each other's hands as you do, since their
limbs are all employed in walking. But if they
are friends they hold on to each others cheeks
with their lips, which have a suctorial force like

242 The Lunarian Professor

an air pump and which would raise a blister on
a skin less tough than the intogunient of a Mar-
tian. AVhen lovers walk out with each other they
apply their lips together in an affectionate kiss
of most uncommon adhesiveness. Jack and Lucy
they say could have been seen any day walking
about glued together in that manner. As this was
common it was considered proper, but under the
circumstances was not altogether prudent, for it
roused the jealousy of Jack's rivals to an almost
murderous pitch. Jack was not so tall as Lucy
by a foot, being only a little over seven feet high.
This brought his mouth six inches lower than hers,
and made it necessary for him to elevate himself
on his toes (or fingers) as much as possible, and
even then Lucy had to meet him half way by bend-
ing the limbs that happened to support her at the
moment in a manner that detracted considerably
from her natural grace. Some of the disappointed
lovers attempted to relieve their chagrin by speak-
ing of Jack contemptuously as *' Tiptoes" and mak-
ing ungallant remarks about Lucy. But this was
small comfort to them, vrhile the loving pair were
so much devoted to each other as to be quite heed-
less of the angry and jealous comment they were
causing.

At last Jack's rivals entered into a conspiracy
to *'do him up." They would beat and tar and
feather him at the very least and if he provoked
them by resistance they would do worse. So they
planned, and one summer evening when Jack and
Lucy were taking their usual loving promenade,
these disappointed suitors took after them. Hut

The Canals 243

the lovers stimulated by a panic of sudden terror
made a miraculous race and distanced their pur-
suers. The latter declared that the lovers did not
run at all in fact, but glided along in some mira-
culous way not touching the ground, but gradually
rising and sailing off getting constantly higher and
higher, they at last disappeared behind a cloud.
And they all declared that there could not be the
least doubt that they had been translated to the
sky to associate with the innumerable stars that
had gone before them. There was nothing at all
incredible in this to the Martian people, because
it was a cardinal principle of their religion that
their great heroes in ancient times had all been
transferred from Mars to the sky. The proof was
patent to anybody that had eyes, for there they
were to be seen without any change of form, some
with six radiating limbs and some with five. And
these two hostile races carried their resentments
to heaven with them and often engaged in direful
warfare, hurling at each other thunderbolts, me-
teors and aerolites as might be seen almost daily
or nightl}^ The celestial history of the lovers is
tragic. They no longer had to walk, because there
beijig nothing much to walk on, the celestial mode
of locomotion is a delicious glide, consequently
they were able occasionally to give their lips a rest,
and hand in hand to quietly slip along with the
glittering crowd thinking of nothing whatever
unless it were of each other. But this happiness
at last came to a sad ending. They were saunter-
ing along as thoughtless and careless as children,
when suddenly and without the least warning, an

244: Tlie TAinarinn Professor

immense aerolite came clashing through the sky
and before Lucy even perceived it, it crashed into
her face knocking out every one of her pretty
eyes, smashing her lips and disfiguring her in the
most terrible manner. In the confusion she was
separated from her companion, and when she
sought him, distracted by pain and blindness she
took the wrong track, and from that day to this
she skurries across the sky in the most feverish
haste, rising in the v^est sailing overhead and
setting in the east from two to three tim.es a day,
while all the other stars including the sun, and
Jack with the rest, rise in the east and set in the
west. As for Jack, when he found how changed
and hideous she had become — his love turned to
aversion. Yvlien she sought him, he avoided her,
and passed by far on the other side. And now,
although they pass each other every few hours
he always looks the other way and she, poor thing,
cannot see him. ''There used to be a serious dis-
pute among the Martians as to the particular sort
of star that threw that rock. One sect of theolo-
gians stoutly maintained that it was hurled with
malicious intent by a malignant five legged star,
and struck the fair mark it was aimed at .with
terrible precision. Another sect held that it was
only an accident ; the missile was probably fired
by a friendly six pointer, missed its mark and un-
fortunately struck where it was not intended to.
As there was not a particle of proof for either
side, affirmations and assertions took the place
of argument, and were dogmatically made and
maintained with no little acrimony on both sides

The Canals ^45

But they all agreed in rendering divine honors to
Lucy with their sympathies and condolences: Poor
Lucy! Perfidious Jack!

When the King learned what the Lunarians
wanted him to give them a mortgage on, he laugh-
ed heartily and thought it a good joke. He could
hardly he made to believe they were in earnest.
'^As 10-^ the poles if there is anything there ex-
cept snow and rocks," said he, 'Svhoever gets
them will earn them, I warrant you.

As for the moons, I shall never undertake to
deliver them in case you foreclose on them, and
your mortgage must distinctly state that you are
to take them running."

The King thought the idea of mortgaging his
moons was peculiarly comical; and after the deal
was consumated and the papers all signed, he
would sometimes stand on the door step and call
out to Lucy as she rushed along overhead with
the speed of a cannon ball, and ask her how she
felt to be mortgaged. In addition to the scheme
for the construction of the canals, the Lunarians
asked and easily obtained a charter or concession
from the king for an easement or right of v,^ay
twenty miles wide, ten miles on each side of the
equator, and reaching entirely around the planet,
for the purpose of one or more lines of telegraph
and cables for the conveyance of electrical power
and for railroads etc. This region was entirely un-
inhabited, and not suited for the occupation of
Martians, but the Lunarians said they would have
use for it in the course of time and wished to have

246 The Lunarian Professor

it understood so they could know what to depend
on.

All the preliminary negotiations being at last
concluded, and the contracts signed, they went to
work with a will. The bonus or subsidy of 100
kiks per acre was raised by taxation, those who
had no money being compelled to work out their
tax on the canal. The route selected for the first
line was across a low swampy country. The work
was light and much of it in the water where the
Martians were at home. The Lunarians had flat
boats constructed on which the excavated muck
and earth v/ere loaded and floated to the deep
places which they partially filled up or deposited
on the dry land. The canal was made 200 feet
v/ide at first, one-half of which was kept entirely
clear, while the other half was planted to the
sea-weed.

It took several years to finish the first line,
and as soon as it was done they commenced the
work of widening it, adding a strip 200 feet in
width, which vrhen completed made the canal 400
feet wide. This process was then repeated and
has been going on constantly not only in the first
canals but in all subsequenc ones of which there is
an immense number. As much material was carried
to the banks and deposited there in the construc-
tion of each strip, a good deal had to be moved
more than once. When this accumulation became
too great to be profitably moved it was skipped
and the next channel constructed parallel with
the main canal, but separated from it by the strip
of solid land on which this waste earth was piled

The Canals 217

from a few rods to a quarter of a mile in width.
On these strips are located the villages of the
working people that cultivate the sea weed, work
on the canal and are engaged in navigation etc.

The total width of some of these canals is now
as much as sixty miles, but they generally consist
in reality of numerous wide channels separated by
narrow strips of land. This plan of canal mak-
ing has been steadily adhered to for several thou-
sand years. Lines parallel to each other and sev-
eral hundred miles apart have been constructed,
and many others connecting with these and inter-
secting them at various angles. These canals not
only constitute the principal fields for the culti-
vation of their staple food, but also furnish what
was for a long time their best and chief mode of
transportation. Their chief commercial and manu-
facturing cities sprung up at the intersections of
the canals.

The building of these canals had a wonderfully
stimulating effect on the development of the Mar-
tian people. The population promptly increased
in proportion to the increase of the means for its
support as it always does, on all planets. With
the increase of population came diversity of em-
ployment, new ideas, tastes, and wants, new inven-
tions more culture and refinement."

''How did the Lunarians come out on their con-
tract ?'* I asked. ''They must have made a lot
of money I reckon."

"I was just coming to that," said he. "Yes
they made lots of money if they could only have
got it, but that was the rub. For a few years

248 The Lunarian Professor

while the amount of the acreage of the canals was
small, it was comparatively easy to raise and pay
over the five per cent due the Lunarians, but by
the time the first great canal was completed
through at a width of 200 feet, their interest
amounted to 375,000 kiks per annum. By this
time the king had discovered a good many new
uses for money, and it went very much against the
grain to pay over this interest. He began to think
the Lunarians were going to be rather too well
paid for the services and ''investment," they had
talked about; and he congratulated himself that
they had not availed themselves of his effusive of-
fer ,of ten per cent instead of five. However
v/hile he grumbled, he paid; and continued to do
so as long as he lived, although towards the last
the interest amounted to the very handsome sum
of 1,000,000 kiks per annum. But that is all, af-
ter the death of that king who is yet affectionately
referred to by the Martians as the ''father of the
canals," the Lunarians for 7,000 years never got
a kik. However, what they had already received
was enough to make every member of the colony
many times a millionaire if they had divided it
amongst them. But this they did not do. The
Lunarians are socialists and they regarded this
money as belonging to the whole Lunarian race, to
those at home on the moon as much as to them-
selves. They invested it to the best advantage in
various enterprises, consuming on themselves only
what their simple and modest personal wants re-
quired. The bonus or subsidy of 100 kiks per
acre generally paid the entire cost of construction

The Canals ^49

and the Lunarians had their interest money. At
the death of the king there was one year's interest
due amounting to 1,000,000 kiks. The successor
to the throne was not satisfied with the contract to
pay a dividend on the stock the Lunarians held in
the canals, and in fact repudiated it all except the
1,000,000 kiks then due which he said he would
pay when he got around to it. But he never did,
and the claim continued to draw interest which
was computed and audited at the beginning of each
subsequent reign, but always put off for some rea-
son or other and not paid."

**Why didn't they foreslose their mortgage?"
I asked.

''Well they did not want to do that until they
were ready to improve the property so as to make
it earn something. They reasoned that the canal
claim, as it was called, was making money at a
tremendous rate. The interest on it 2,000 years
ago or, over 6,000 years after the work on the
canals was commenced, amounted to thousands of
millions of kiks every minute, and they had not
been able to devise any plan by which they could
make any satisfactory use of the mortgaged prop-
erty; and so they let the money remain in the
canal fund."

''But," said I, "suppose it was earning so many
millions of kiks, I don't see what good it did them
if they never got it."

"Why you see," he replied, "they got out of
it in that shape, all they could have got if the
money had been in their hands. And it was safe.
It could not be stolen and nobody would be tempt-

250 The Lunarian Professor'

ed to assasinate the owners in order to get it.
AVhen people have such enormous fortunes they
can come into personal contact with only a small
portion of them. An individual owning many mil-
lions can only use on himself a few hundreds or
thousands, and the rest of it buys him nothing
but the respect homage, consideration, obsequious-
ness and sycophancy of the crowd. For all this
he does not have to pay a cent, but must own or
be supposed to own millions. The funds which
our Lunarians owned in canal stock made them
the lions of Mars. Their personal abilities, accom-
plishments and graces would have done that any-
way, w^ith a certain class, but the addition of all
that wealth gave them an influence and considera-
tion amongst the mass of people who had no great
appreciation of any other sort of merit.

All sorts of odd stories concerning the w^ealthy
foreigners found circulation amongst the masses.
Once it was reported that if the canal funds were
not paid before the next Christmas, the Lunarians
intended to fiill up all the canals again. It was
well known for ages that there was not enough
money on Mars to pay the canal debt, or even its
accumulation for one year. Not very long ago
it became reported that the Lunarians had sold
their claims to capitalists on the earth, and that
the latter were going to get out an attachment
for Mars, bid it off at sheriff's sale and take it
for another moon to the earth. The story even
settled the route it was to run on — half waj^ be-
tween the earth and the moon."

''That was a likely tale indeed!" said L *'Tliey

The Canals 251

didn't know our capitalists very well or they
wouldn't have imagined them going into a scheme
that did not promise to pay pretty big."

''0, but it was to pay well as they had it plan-
ed. First the speculators were to sell short for
future delivery all the gas and standard oil stocks
in the world: then they were to bargain with the
various great cities to furnish additional moon-
light at so much for each added moon power,
measured by our moon. They calculated that Mars
placed 120,000 miles from the earth would reflect
upon the earth 16 times as much light as the moon
does. This would make the night about as bright
as day. This would reduce the value of oil and
gas stocks almost to nothing and the speculators
would then buy them up for delivery on their sale
contracts and make an enormous sum. The most
of the Martians were keen for the enterprise to
be consumated. They said that they would gain
more than the earth by the change, for both the
earth and moon would act as moons for Mars, and
he would get four times as much light from the
earth as he would give it. He would also get
far more light and heat from the sun than he did
where he was. ^Vhen it was announced that the
story was a hoax many people were actually dis-
appointed. Others said they were glad to have
escaped the disgrace of being sold out at a bank-
rupt sale and degraded from a full fledged planet
to a mere satellite to be towed off to play second
fiddle to another world."

''But how did they think Mars was to moved
over to the earth?"

252 The Lunarian Professor

"0 they supposed the Lunarians were going
to see to that part of it. They had got the idea
the Lunarians could do anything."

''But could they have accomplished such an
undertaking as that?"

"That question was never settled; but they
would not have done it if they could. The Luna-
rians always felt very much mortified that the
moon is only a satellite and not a full planet. They
have got some little satisfaction, however, in the
great amount of attention, the moon has always
received from the people of the earth. In old
times in fact the earthlings used to pay divine
honors to our globe, as w^ell they might. But if
Mars were to become a satellite of the earth it is
easy to see he would monopolize all the attention
that has heretofore been lavished on us. We
w^ouldn't like that. No it looks as if you may
depend upon it, the Lunarians would never lend
themselves to a scheme like that. But a hoax like
that has wonderful vitality.

A little over a thousand years ago the Luna-
rians began to think of foreclosing their mortgage.
They had the polar regions of IMars quietly explor-
ed, and were agreeably surprised to find large de-
posits of coal, iron, gold, silver, tin, copper and
many other metals and valuable minerals. They
were already posted as to the nature of the little
moons Jack-Deimos and Lucy-Phobos. It was a
difficult and perilous task to effect a landing on
them, but after much effort it was accomplished.
It was found that Jack Deimos, which by the
wav is about seven miles in diameter and

The Canals * ^53

twenty-two in circumference — you could ride clear
around it on a bicycle in four hours— is about one-
lialf iron, the rest rock containing gold, silver, lead
and tin. Deimos always has the same side turn-
ed toward Mars, and on the opposite side is a lake
about a mile in diameter and frozen solid to the
bottom, which melts down a few inches every day
and freezes up again at night. There is a little
thin air, that does not extend more than one or
two hundred yards high. The mass of this little
moon is so small that its attraction for anything
on it is very slight. An ordinary man weighs less
than an ounce. He is considerably lighter on the
side toward Mars than he is on the opposite side.
One might stand on that side and shoot an ar-
row toward Mars, and it would not return to him,
but continue its flight till it reached the planet.
There is in several places quite a growth of a
hardy plant something like an alga, although the
temperature on the shady side is 40° below 0. It
is hot on the sunny side. The difficulty of getting
on this little moon is due to its small attractive
power. "When we approach a large body, such as
the Moon or Mars its attraction draws us after it
and gradually brings us to its surface. But Dei-
mos attracts with so little force that we have to
get up speed and force from some other body and
so run alongside and catch him. He flies around
his orbit at the astonishing speed of 3,610^ miles
an hour or more than 50 miles a minute. In order
to get up such a speed as that our folks had to
go off a million miles from Mars in a direction
opposite to the sun and then allow themselves to

!554 The lAinarian Professor

fall toward ]\Iars until they were near the orbit
of Deimos; then they turned on repulsion which
sheered them off and caused them to describe an
orbit around Mars in the same direction as that
of Deimos. Deimos passed them several times be-
fore they could get into his attraction close enough
to be pulled in by him.

They afterwards boarded Lucy-Phobos in the
same w^ay. Her attraction is a little stronger than
Jack's as she is over eight miles in diameter. But
her speed is still more terrific than his as she goes
at the rate of 4,777 miles an hour or more than
79.2 miles a minute. She, too, always presents the
same face to Mars.

Having made up their minds how they would
improve the property w^hen they got it, they in-
formed the King that they desired to foreclose the
mortgage. He made no defense and instructed the
authorities to throw no obstacles in the way. The
foreclosure was advertised in the usual way and
when the day of sale arrived there was the usual
crowd of loafers, but no bidders except the Luna-
rians. They bid three million kiks for the whole
outfit — one million each for the two frigid zones
and one million for the two satellites, and the
property was of course knocked down to them,
considering the importance of the sale it was a
({uiet, tame affair. — The King was not a little dis-
pleased when he found they had bid in the prop-
erty for less than the billion, billion, billionth part
of their claim, thus leaving the debt practically
unreduced. He supposed they would bid the face
of their claim and thus wipe out the debt. Still,

The Great Debt S55

however, he made no attempt at redemption; in
fact nobody would have given any more for the
property than was bid. The title was confirmed
to them by the court and they entered into pos-
session.

CHAPTER XV.

The Great Debt.

The King began to be much concerned in re-
gard to the great debt. He called his bankers to-
gether and had them compute it down to date.
Then after brooding over the matter for some days
he called his council and the Lunarian claimants
together and made them a speech. He declared he
was sick and tired of ''paying interest." True,
he had never paid any, but it constantly added
to the already most appalling debt to be found in
the solar system. "In fact it is so great (said he)
that we have no single words to express it. ^ It
is written by setting down 20 and then annexing
to that a string of 153 ciphers. The original debt
left by my illustrious ancestor the father of the
canals was 1,000,000 kiks, at least that is all his
successor assumed, and it is that insignificant sum
that has grown to such overwhelming proportions.
Take 20,000,000 septillions of kiks and multiply
by 1,000,000 sexteillions ; multiply this product by 1,-
000,000 of quintillions and this by 1,000,000 quadril-
lions; this by 1,000,000 millions; and finally mul-

256 The Lunarian Professor

tiply this by 1,000,000. Now from this inconceiva-
bly great sum subtract one kik. That kik is the
principal; all the rest is interest. As the whole
principal was 1,000,000 kiks, our whole debt is
1,000,000 times the above sum.* I have for sev-
eral days been endeavoring to master the finan-
cial principal applicable to this ease. Our Luna-
rian professors have told us that the normal ad-
vance of natural modes of motion is by undula-
tion, or the progressive rising and falling of one
wave after another, as in the ocean, the movement
of heat and light, the ebbing and flowing of the
tides etc. I have observed that the same law holds
in the accumulation of wealth. It undulates. It
is lively awhile, then dull. Business men accumu-
late a pile, then lose it. It is the same with money
engaged in business, it sometimes gains, some-
times loses. A man may drink twenty hogsheads
of wine, but he cannot accumulate that much in-
side of him at once.

It may be possible for one little kik in the
course of 7,000 years to earn on Mars all the
wealth both real and personal that there is on all
the planets in the solar system and much more
besides. At any rate it has done it on paper ac-
cording to the figures and the claim of our Luna-
rian friends, but evidently it could only be done
by its dropping a lot of it occasionally and earn-
ing it over again. So the undulatory movement
applies here as a physical necessity. But the pap-

* I have gone over these figures and I find the King
was correct. Author.

The Great Deht ^ol

ers in this case so far, represent only the swelling
of the wave without the complementary sinking
that completes an undulation, and makes its con-
tinued movement a physical possibility. These
papers relate only to the ascending or crescendo
half of the wave, but fail to provide for the di-
minuendo side of it. This wave has been swelling
for 7,000 years. It is high time it had reached its
culmination or greatest amplitude and I think it
has. Seven is a mystic number and in this case
evidently marks that epoch. Time alone was
competent to enable a little kik to pile up such
an accumulation of debt against us, and what time
has done, time can undo.

I propose now to issue a diminuendo bond that
will in the course of 7,000 years reduce this debt
back to the level it started from. Instead of
bearing interest, this bond will bear discount.
This discount the first year will be precisely what
the interest was the last, and each year in the de-
scending future the bond will be reduced to the
same amount to which it v/as increased in the year
as far in the past as it is in the future counting
from the date of the bond. So that 1,000 years hence
the amount of it will be the same that it was
1,000 years ago and so on. Coupons shall be at-
tached, representing the amount of the discount
each year which the holders of the bonds shall de-
tach and present to the treasurer to be cancelled.
Thus the debt will be reduced every year and it
will cost nobody a kik.

At the end of 7,000 years all the accumulation
of interest will have been dissipated and only the

258 The Lunarian Professor

principal will be left. This if not paid then will
begin to draw interest again, because by the un-
dulatory theory, the wave having reached its low-
est ebb must thereafter rise.

This was the substance of the king's speech,
and it was highlj^ applauded by the whole assem-
bly, except the Lunarians. They said it looked
to them like repudiation, and they told the king
they feared it would hurt his credit not only in
the Moon, but on the Earth, and Venus. Juno. Pal-
las, Ceres, Vesta and all the rest. The King re-
plied that he would be sorry to do anything that
would impair his credit in the. other planets and
for that reason would not on any account re-
pudiate. That was why he gave this bond. If
he intended to repudiate he would not need to
give any bond. By this arrangement they would
get their million kiks in the course of time — would
no doubt have got them long ago — if that load
of interest had not been piled on top of them. The
object of this bond was to remove this interest.
According to the undulatory theory of finance
that he had just announced, the total amount of
loss of money employed in business exactly equals
the total amount of gain, since money does not
change in amount by being used. But in particu-
lar cases there may be net gains at the expense
of loss somewhere else. And he said that the
shrewdness of the Lunarians would have insured
to them a measure of net gain; but by no possi-
bility could it have amounted to many times it-
self even in the course of ages. **It is labor, not
money, that creates wealth. If you bury 100 kiks

Dcimns and tlie Great Cable 250

in the ground and after a year dig them up you
will not find that they have increased to 105."

This talk of the king convinced the Lunarians
that he did not intend to pay the interest on their
claim and as they could not afford to quarrel with
him, they proposed a compromise, and it was
finally settled that they should receive 1,000,000
kiks in addition to the property they had taken
on the foreclosure, and a bond for ten million
kiks to be paid at the option of the government
without interest or securit.y. They did not re-
gard this bond as very valuable, and as a mat-
ter of fact it has not been paid off to this day,
but still constitutes a ''claim." After all, how-
ever, they did well enough notwithstanding their
astounding loss.

They were now recognized as men who througli
no fault of their own had sunk the most stupend-
ous sum of money ever known to exist in ono
fund, and this circumstance gave them as much
notoriety and almost as much influence and im-
portance, as if they still had to their credit the
sum of 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,
000,000,000,000,000, 000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,
000 kiks.

Deimos and the Great Cable.

These financial questions being settled the Lu-
narians went to work to improve their new prop-

•360 The Lunarian Professor

erty. They commenced work on the south polar
region, opening extensive mines of coal and iron
and starting furnaces and rolling mills. It soon
became known what they were up to, which proved
to be nothing less than the capture of Jack-Deimos
and setting him to work. The first thing to do
vv^as to construct a cable long enough to reach
from the pole of Mars to Deimos. Deimos is
14,547 miles from the center of Mars and a little
further from the pole viz 14,690 miles. The cable
was made about 25 miles longer than that. It
was composed of a vast number of strands of
tremendously tough steel wire and put together in
the most marvelous way, for they were in small
bundles insulated from each other as to the at-
traction of gravitation and also insulated by sec-
tions of their length. By this construction a part
of the strands might be made to be subject to the
attraction of gravitation, others alongside of them
to repulsion, also a strand might be made sub-
ject to attraction in one part while in another it
could be subject to repulsion, and these conditions
could be reversed, or all the parts could be caus-
ed to be in the same state. The effect of this was
very remarkable. "When the cable was completed
it was stretched out a section of one to two hund-
red miles at a time, and tested, an alternating
electrical battery being used to alter the gravita-
tional conditions. By proper manipulation, the
cable could be made to rise bodily from the ground,
or it could be made to rise by sections, one section
on the ground and another humped up like the back
of an angry cat, or when lying down straight it

Deimos and the Great Cable 261

could be made to roll over, by causing one side
to be attractive and the other repelling.

This cable was eight inches in diameter. The
lower end was doubled on itself to form an eye
five feet in diameter. The other end for 25 miles
vras left free, the wires all being separate and
loose with balls of iron attached to their ends.
AYhen this end of the cable was tested, a consider-
able section, by being subjected to repulsion, rose
from the ground and assumed a perpendicular
position, the loose ends of the wire parting and re-
pelling each other like the hairs on the head of an
electrified person. This was what was required
and the test was pronounced a perfect success.

Over the south pole of Mars is a mountain some
8,000 feet above the sea level. They found the
exact pole not far from the highest part of this
mountain which was a lucky circumstance. Here
they planted a great steel shaft deep in the hard
rock, its end sticking up so as to receive the eye
of the cable. A good deal of grading and level-
ing off of obstructions that stood up above the
proposed sweep of the cable, had to be removed.
But the largest part of the work was the construc-
tion of the circular railway. This railway was
built in a circle around the pole and 285 miles
distant from it. The diameter of this circle was
570 and the length of the road v»ras 1,791 miles.
There were two purposes to be served by this road.
A person standing at the pole of Mars cannot see
Deimos on account of the bulge or convex surface
of the globe. And it is only when he gets 285
miles from the pole that he can look over the bulge

2&Z The Lunarian Professor

and see the little moon. So a rope drawn taut
from Deimos to the pole of the planet, would
drag on the ground for the 285 miles next the
pole, but outside of the 285 miles the line would
gradually leave the ground. A large heavy car
Vv'as made to travel on the railroad to hold up the
cable as it swept around. Attached to this car
there w^as to be a train holding the dynamos in
w^hich the power w^as to be turned into electricity.
When everything was ready to hook on to the
little moon, the cable was caused to erect itself by
repulsion. It tended to stand directly out in line
with the pole as if it were a continuation of the
axis, and care had to be taken to prevent it slip-
ing off its shaft and going off bodily into space.
This had been anticipated and provided against
however. After standing a few hours under the
influence of repulsion it became rigid -and perfect-
ly straight. One-half of the strands throughout
the whole length of the cable except the last twen-
ty miles were now placed under the influence of
attraction and the other half under repulsion. This
left it still rigid, but indifferent and movable in
any direction by a very small force like a water
soaked log in the water. Attraction was now
turned on a very small portion of the lower end
of the cable and it began slowly to incline toward
the ground. AYhen it got down almost to the
ground it was found that the ground where the
railroad was built was running under the cable
from west to east at the rate of 72J miles an hour.
Some very delicate manipulation was required
here. The cable by having been erected at the

Deiinos and the Great Cable 263

pole had no rotary motion as the planet had. The
planet revolved from west to east at the rate of
521.4 miles an hour at the equator, but, at the
circular railroad this was reduced to 72.6 miles.
At the pole of course it was nothing. As the rail-
road track and the car for carrying the cable were
whirling along at that rate while the cable itself
was stationary, it became necessary to give the
cable a rotary sweep corresponding in direction
with the diurnal revolution of the planet, and at
somewhere near the same speed. This was ac-
complished by compelling work to be done by the
revolution of the planet. Several little circular
tracks were laid around the pole and close to it
on which were placed cars carrying heavy steel
beams that projected on either side and dragged
cutting and scraping tools. The cars being at-
tached to the cable, as the planet revolved they
were made to pare down the mountain, and as this
process continued long after the successful at-
tachment of the cable to Deimos the part of the
mountain immediately at the pole became shaped
like an immense pin or capstan. The doing of this
work by this steady pulling on the cable gradual-
ly set the cable to revolving around the shaft at
the pole, the speed constantly increasing until at
the railway the cable had developed a speed of
60 miles an hour or within 12.6 miles an hour
of the rate the surface of the planet at the rail-
way was traveling. A locomotive was now attach-
ed to the car or truck that was to carry the cable,
and by running it from east to west at the rate of

264 The Lunarian Professor

12.6 miles au hour it could be kept directly un-
der the cable. Before lowering it, however, it
was necessary to hump or raise up that part of it
extending from the pole to the railwaj^ to keep
it from dragging on the ground which if straight
it would do on account of the rounding of the
globe of Mars. That was done by turning on re-
pulsion over that part of it, and simultaneously
putting on attraction in the region of the railway.
This tended to cant the loose end of the cable to-
ward the plane of the planet's equator and brought
it very near to the orbit of Deimos. The cable
was settled upon its truck without trouble. This
truck with the cable now had an apparent motion
from east to west of 12.6 miles an hour its real
motion being from west to east 60 miles an hour
and that of the railway track also from west to
east 72.6 miles an hour. The loose end of the cable
swept around with a speed proportional with its
distance from the pole of Mars. This speed was
3,062J miles per hour which is 46 miles faster than
that of Deimos which is 3,016J as I mentioned be-
fore. Of course it was now only necessary to tip
the cable over a little more so as to get it into
the equatorial plane of Mars in order to bring it
into contact with Deimos. This was done by ap-
plying attraction to a short section of the cable
just outside of the railway track. The cable slow-
ly moved at the switch end and came into line
with Deimos about 43 days after having passed
him. So as it gained on him only 46 miles
an hour, it took about 40 days after this to
catch up. This gave ample time to get the
cable into exact position so there Avould be

Deinios and the Great Cable 2Go

no danger of missing him. This most exciting
race was now closely watched by every body on
Mars that could get near a telescope — and our
folks had introduced some very excellent ones. The
cable gradually crept up on Jack — so the specta-
tors said — like an old woman with a broom. As
the final moment approached the excitment be-
came intense. The cable like a vast arm termi-
nated by an immense hand with extended fingers
came up threateningly behind and at the fated
instant gave Jack a spank on the rear with a
shock of 46 miles an hour which sent all the
fingers flying around him and clasping him with a
tremendous grasp.

At that moment full attraction was turned on
to these clasping strands of wire and their hug
was made permanent by the attraction with which
Deimos held them down to his surface. This
was considered by the Lunarians the greatest feat
in engineering that had ever been accomplished
up to that time."

**0r since that time either I should imagine,"
said I, **it was wonderful! What else has ever
been achieved to compare with it?"

**Well, the catching of Lucy-Phobos" —
*0, I forgot about Lucy-Phobos. What did
they do with her or him? — ^Did they hitch Phobos
to the other pole of Mars?"

*'No, I'll tell you; but let me finish with Dei-
mos first. WTien the cable struck Deimos of course
its speed was at once checked. The shock caused
quite a wave to pass down the whole length of the
cable, but no damage was done, and when things

26G The Lunarian Professor

got steadied down again it was found the truck
that carried the cable was making a speed of 13J
miles an hour from east to west instead of 12.6
Avhich it was doing before the cable struck Deimos.
The reason of this was that Deimos was slower
than the cable and Mars dragged the track out
from under the car 13J miles faster than Deimos
dragged it forward. It was no trouble after this
to go up to Deimos by way of the cable. A car
was built around the cable consisting of four stor-
ies, one above another. Friction rollers pressed
the cable on all sides to steady the car and there
were brakes to hold it when necessary. Its chamb-
ers w^ere air tight and it carried compressed air
for the use of its passengers together with all the
modern conveniences. Of course it ascended by
repulsion and came back by attraction. It en-
tirely obiviated the trouble they first experienced
in making a landing on the little moon, since the
cable traveled as fast as it did. Frequent trips
were made to Deimos and it was always quite the
trip for the strong nerved traveler to take. But
the main advantage of this work of course came
from the enormous power that it afforded for in-
dustrial purposes. A long train of trucks were at-
tached to the one carrying the cable, and these
contained dynamos driven by gearing connections
with their axles. The electricity irenerated in this
way was carried to wires running parallel with
the circular railroad, and from these, radiating
Aviras running north, convey the power to all parts
of tJie south temperate zone.'*

They made considerable and remarkable chang-

Deimos and ilie Great Cable 267

es in Deimos itself. One thing they did was to
import a large stock of air. As I mentioned be-
fore the air was very light and thin, and visitors
at first had to depend on their flasks of com-
pressed air to a great extent. But after they got
to making such frequent trips, it became a rule
to always take up large flasks of compresed oxy-
gen which was prepared and kept on hand to be
carried up whenever a trip should be made. This
was set free on the little moon. In that way in
the course of time the air has been made quite
passable. In order that visitors might not con-
sume it and replace it with carbonic acid gas, they
built several lines of tiny railroads reaching around
Deimos on w^hich they built movable gardens.
These moved around the whole circuit of the little
globe every 30 hours and 18 minutes, that being
its period of revolution around Mars. These little
gardens thus kept themselves directly under the
sun all the time, and were thus always in a tropi-
cal climate. Their growth consumed the carbonic
gas that accumulated there, and so kept the air
pure. The power that moved the gardens was
electricity generated by sun light. A large num-
ber of machines were placed at intervals all around
the little moon so that the sun should always be
shining on several of them.

268 The Lunarian Profcasor

CHAPTER XVI.
Phobos.

Deimos is exceedingly valuable also as a sort
of stepping stone from which to get onto Phobos.
Once on Deimos and it is as easy getting onto
Phobos as to step from one car to another in a
running train. Phobos is 5,807 miles from the
center of Mars. AVhen the three are in line it is
8,740 miles from Deimos. Deimos travels 3,016^
miles an hour, Phobos 4,777. A body thrown off
from Deimos towards Mars will retain the velocity
of Deimos and will acquire in falling that 8,740
miles an additional velocity enough to bring its
speed up to that of Phobos. So our Lunarians by
close calculation and timely departure from Dei-
mos have had little or no trouble in lighting on
Phobos without a perceptible jar and have con-
veyed by that route all the machinery and appa-
ratus they needed- in making their improvements
there.''

*'Was Phobos worth improving then?"

*'No, its motive power was simply harnessed
so as to be utilized on Mars. They did it in this
way.

A large number of powerful steel magnets were
prepared on Mars together with the materials for
a large basket or crate stout enough to hold them,

Pliohos ^69

also four cables made of wire, each two inches
in diameter. These materials done up in proper
shape were taken up the cable by repulsion to
Deimos then again by repulsion cast off with a
company of Lunarians in one of their cars to sail
down to Phobos."

*'I should think that being encumbered with
such a lot of stuff would have added greatly to
the risk of the trip," said I.

''Not at all, the more metal the better, since
it can be made light or heavy at will and so kept
under control while other materials could not be
made light. It is always desirable to have more than
half the weight of our outfit in iron or steel on
that account. Well, they landed this material on
Phobos and there put it together. The different
parts were insulated from each other to provide
for the use of repulsion or gravitation as the case
might require.

They staked off an exact square five and a
half miles on each side, which was about as large
a one as they could get on Phobos and at each
corner they firmly anchored one end of one of the
cables. At the center of the square Mars appeared
directly overhead. At this point the crate was
put together upside down and its load of magnets
arranged inside of it also upside down. The cables
3,760 miles long were coiled in a pile each to it-
self and the end fastened to the corners of the
crate. On Mars this outfit weighed many tons,
but on Phobos it was so light that one man could
lift it. Wires connected with a battery passed
through the cables to regulate the weight of the

270 Tlie Liuiarian Professor

concern. A small amount of repulsion raised it
and carried it to the limit of the attraction ox Pho-
bos. The momentum taking- it a little further,
and within the dominance of that of Mars when
light attraction was turned on and the crate rose
or rather fell slowly toward Mars. AVhen the cables
were stretched out and the crate hung by them, it
was within a few feet of the ground in some
places, at others as much as one or two hundred.
Its motion was from west to east at the incredible
speed of 1,160 miles an hour. Its actual rate of
travel is 1,681 miles per hour, but the revolution
of Mars on its axis is at the rate 521 miles in the
same direction, so the difference constitutes the
apparent motion of the crate of Magnets. In order
to get electric power from these it was only neces-
sary to set up insulated slabs of soft iron along
the route of the magnets in such position that they
would pass close to them as they swept by. This
w^as done at different places along the route, and
covered altogether, distances aggregating more
than three thousand miles. Of the remaining dist-
ance around the planet a part was over the sea
and some over low land, where the scaffolding
would be too high to pay. The electricity generat-
ed in these stationary armatures was run oft' to
storage batteries wherever required in the equat-
orial regions of the planet. So, with the cable to
Deimos and the big dynamo of Phobos. Mars is
supplied with unlimited power at nominal cost."

''But doesn't the plant require renewal? I
should think it would rust out after awhile."

"Yes the cable has been renewed twice. The

Phoh

OS

last one put up is 12 inches in diameter. It is
easy now to put one up, with the one already up
to steady and steer it. It only has to fall up as
you might say, under the influence of repulsion.
The occasion of putting up the last cable, how-
ever, was not rust, but a singular accident. Dur-
ing the winter there are generally only two or
three men left at the pole to keep the shaft oiled
and see that everything is all right. One winter
the men left in charge undertook to move some
heavy timbers and steel beams that had been left
on the top of the mountain, and managed to get
them into such a position that they were caught
by the cable which slowly carried them around
until they partly fell into a crevice and became
immovable. The cable bent itself around the ob-
struction, and in doing so was thrown so far down
over the edge of the mountain which as I told
you had been turned off to resemble a capstan,
that it began to be wound around it as if it were
a great spool. The men telegraphed to the gen-
eral manager who came up with a crowd of en-
gineers and workmen, but they could not do a
thing except to keep the cable raised by repulsion
as much as possible to keep it from catching some
obstruction on the ground. The cable made the
complete circuit of the railway track in a trifle
over 5J days. The mountain stem had been whit-
tled down to about a mile in diameter so that each
revolution wound up a little over three miles of
cable, which was at the rate of a little over half
a mile a day.

The cable was so injured where it had been

373 Tlic Lunarian Professor

wound up that they were afraid it would break
if they loosened it, and so they concluded to make
a new one. There did not seem to be any great
hurry about it, and so it dragged along for four
years without much being done. By that time
almost 700 miles of cable had been wound up and
Deimos had been drawn up that much nearer to
Mars. Some thought this a good thing and pro-
posed to let him wind himself down wuthin a
hundred miles or so of Mars, so that he would
be of some account as a moon, for he gave very
little light where he was. Others wanted him
pulled down to the ground so they could cut him
up and get 'the gold, silver, iron and other valua-
bles he might contain; enough they said to m.ake
all the Martians rich. But the more prudent
pointed out that if he was pulled down too far
he would interfere with Lucy Phobos and spoil her
work. It had been observed that the cable had
been getting slower and slower and was now
moving only a little more than half as fast as it
did at first, and the industries depending on it
were getting short of power. The mathematicians
figured that Deimos would never wind himself up
any closer than 12,700 miles or 1,847 miles from
where he was in the first place, for the reason that
drawing him in towards Mars increased his speed
so that when he was wound up to 12,700 miles he
would revolve around the planet in 24 hours and
40 minutes, the same time it takes Mars to roll
over. Consequently Deimos would appear to stand
over the same spot all the time, the cable would
cease to move and the winding up process would

The Neiv Cahfe 273

stop, and of course all the machinery connected
with it would stop too. After a full discussion of
the matter, it was concluded to let Deimos get
back to his original orbit, so that the manufactur-
ing that had been started and was operated by the
power furnished by the cable might not suffer any
further loss.

The New Cable.

The new cable was run up alongside of the
old and the upper end fastened to Deimos while
the eye in the lower end was placed over the shaft.
The cable was then deprived of weight and the
700 miles of slack floated about in space like a big
cobweb. It was now supposed that if the old
cable was cut Deimos would rapidly move out to
his old position. But he did nothing of the kind.
He seemed to be satisfied with his new route, and
for several months he persistently kept on without
getting any further away, his slack cable sagging
out behind. They now undertook to compel him,
and they succeeded in this way. They gave the
cable full weight repulsion. This caused it to
straighten out upward, and the slack went on up
350 miles above Deimos curving back to him. The
whole thing looked like a fish pole and line with
Deimos dangling at the end of it. It had the
desired effect, however, for its strain upward ex-
erted considerable power on Deimos disturbing
the equilibrium that had been established between
the centripetal and centrifugal forces that con-
trolled his motion. It took about two years, how-
ever, to get him back to his old route. Pie was

5'^l The Lunarian Professor

tipped over twice in the process, on account of the
cable having been fastened on the underside; first
while the loop of the cable was above it, and
second when it got out to the end of the cable it
w^as canted back again."

"It was a funny experience, the little moon
had," I observed. '*I suppose it got down to its
former gait so as to allow of the old retrograde
speed of cable at the Mars end?"

''Yes of course, the speed of Deimos decreased
with its distance from Mars. It has occurred to
them since, that they ought to have had a still
longer cable, so as to have got him still further
off with a still slower movement. They would
have got more power by it.

The last time I was on Mars a remarkable cir-
cumstance took place that I shall never forget. I
was one of a party that accompanied the King on
a visit to the pole to inspect the plant and view
the landscape. From this lofty elevation the view
is charming, and there is also a strange fascination
in watching the solemn revolution of the great
cable moving with the deliberation and precise
regularity'' of the hour hand of some enormous time
piece. There is a little cabin built over the shaft
at the pole which revolves with the cable. The
man whose business it is to oil the shaft constant-
ly stays in that cabin, and even sleeps there. While
we were admiring the view we suddenly heard a
scream from the man in the cabin. The eye of
the cable is oval and is not filled by the shaft at
its inside end. Upon rushing into the cabin we
found the unfortunate man had been asleep and

The new Cable 2'}'5

allowed one of his feet to drop into this space
and it had been slowly drawn in between the cable
and the shaft until it was so fastened that he
could not pull it out with the most frantic exer-
tions, and every minute took it further crushing
as it went. At last the man called for an ax, and
it was handed to him, when without a moment's
hesitation, with two or three strokes he severed his
leg just above the knee. I was terribly shocked,
but the poor man made light of it, and declared
he would have another leg in its place as good as
that one in five months. Less than two weeks af-
terwards I saw him and his leg had already start-
ed to grow out and in five months he was walking
on it the same as the others."

"That was remarkable," said I, **but it is
said the star fishes on earth — what! are you go-
ing?"

The professor during his talk had been arrang-
ing his car, a process I had been endeavoring to
keep the run of without losing his conversation.
He had erected a cab or house over the lower part
or body of it, had fastened it down with a sort of
clamps, that appeared to make the joints air tight,
leaving open a small door on one side. The ma-
terial of this cab was a thick leathery substance,
evidently very tough and stiff and very transpar-
ent. He had also an instrument that I directly
perceived was an air pump, for he used it in pump-
ing air into a number of flasks — those that he had
emptied, I suppose, on his trip down from the
moon. As he filled them hje placed them inside of
the cab and having walked around and carefully

2^(j The Lunarian Professor

inspected everything to his satisfaction, he paused
and turned his great benignant eyes upon nie in
a hesitating manner that seemed to say that he
had something more to tell me which nevertheless
he hesitated to communicate. After a few mo-
ments he overcame his scruples if he had an}^ and
reaching into one of his middle pockets he brought
forth a thin piece of stuff resembling parchment
covered on both sides by an adhesive substance
like that used on postage stamps. In shape it
was like the moon at its first quarter. He pressed
this piece against his forehead and left it sticking
there for only a moment then handed it to me
with a gesture that appeared to indicate that I
should press it against mine. I did this, but it
did not stick and there came into my head a very
strange and muddled sensation not unlike a head-
ache. I pulled it off. The Professor v\^as looking
at me and evidently perceived my trouble, for he
directed me by a gesture to turn it over. The ef-
fect of this was as wonderful as it was agreeable.
The Professor seemed to me to be talking through
a telephone and while I could not say that I un-
derstood him any better than by his usual method,
it was, to me, a new method, and disclosed new
faculties and possibilities showing in a new light
the genius and versatility of this wonderful race.
The information that he chose this novel way of
communicating to me, related to the rumor in cir-
culation in Mars as stated sometime back, that a
company of speculators made up of Lunarians and
extensive promotors living on the Earth were act-
ually planning to impose a new orbit on ]\Iars and

The Great Scheme 277

had so far progressed with the scheme, that th.
stock was all subscribed. It was understood the
Lunarians were to do the actual work; m fact u
was conceded that they were the only people an
the solar system that possessed a plant at al com-
Lnsurote with the magnitude of the undertaking
or were sufficiently skilled or experienced to han-
dle it The Lunarians were too shrewd or wary to
undertake such a contract without assuring them-
selves of their ability to perform it. It was to in-
orm themselves on this point, that the Professor had
agreed to make the long trip to Mars d^-^^J -^:
ter his return to the Moon. This was a larger
undertaking than they had yet attempted. They
understood perfectly the -ath-atica^^ pnnci^^^^^^^^^
involved '^"t til. jy ™ f^ o^^the appara^^^_
[rta^rrnan-rttrdeclareaiftheyco^^^^^^
Pt all they could do it easily. They reiiea o
bourse on their great secret-the repulsion of grav-

"^'¥1" great scheme was therefore not the hoax
they we^e willing to have the general publi be-

ieve it to be, but a well --id^-'^ f Xdciste
some of the most astute financiers and physicists
Tthe solar system. The following are some of
the principal names and firms enlisted in th^ en-
terprise. U. L. & V; J. Y. & Co., K. G. Q., A W.
Z. & Sons; H. 0. & Co.; B. H. R. Sons and Co M.
I>.C.C.C.;J.X.&J.;I.&P.;I>-J-&N^'^^H^
I & F ; N. B.; S. I. & Co.; C. M. & Co.; R. T. &-
X ■ C E The timidity of capital is notorious;
likewise its gullibility and therefore its instinct

278 TIlc Lunarian Professor

for secrecy and slyness. But the above array of
names is an ample guaranty against trifling.

There had occurred to me from the first, the
interesting question, what the business could be
that would imiDose such a long and fatiguing jour-
ney on the Professor as a visit to Mars. I remem-
bered the evasive reply he gave me when asked
in regard to the great scheme for the abduction
of that planet. I presume it was the tension on
my mind, relating to this subject, that gave him
an inkling telepathically of my wish to learn more
of this great scheme and led him to pause and
comply as related above. As to their ability to
work out so vast an enterprise; it may be doubted.
AVhen ]\Iars is in a direct line between Jupiter and
the Sun, if they could give it a vigorous repulsory
push from Jupitor while the sun's attraction re-
mains in activity, both his orbit and time would
approximate those of the Earth. It might take
several such repulsory pushes to secure the degree
of conformity required for the adjustment of the
three orbits — Moon, Mars and Earth. There is
no denying the imminent risk to be incurred even
by such experts as our Lunarians, in handling
three bulky globes in such close proximity, for it
is not Mars alone that will be involved in any
change that may be brought about; but all three.
It will prove a much greater contract than hand-
ling Deimos and Phobos.

These thoughts passed rapidly through my
brain, while the Professor after another hasty in-
spection of his car, suddenly stepped inside and
closed the door, fastening it with clamps like the

The Great Scheme 279

rest. While he was doing this I eagerly inquired
if he would uot meet me again sometime and re-
sume the story of my race in the far future be-
yond the one hundreth millenium.

He nodded his head affirmatively with a most
benignant smile, of his great kindly eyes, and said
something I could only partially understand — "I
will meet you here August — 9 ," some-
thing preceded and something followed the nine,
but I cannot tell what. The nine probably refers
to the year— but nine occurs in every remaining
year of this century, and in every one of the next.
He waved his hand to me, then reached forward
from his seat in the back of the car touched a
button — or something — and began at once to rise,
rather rapidly from the first, and increasing in
speed so fast that the car as I gazed after it,
dwindled with wonderful rapidity and soon went
out. Before he shut himself in his car I had in-
stinctively taken off my hat, and I stood there
holding it in my hand, but without sufficient pres-
ence of mind to frame an appropriate farewell.
The fact is, his personality was overpowering and
in his presence — I speak only for myself — one felt
small and insignificant.

''Well! can you make it out?" The words
t-tartled me and looking up I saw Allan Ocheltree
standing before me with a bucket of water in his
hand. I could not realize for a few moments where
I was. Looking down I saw in my hands the stake
with the red blotches on that I had tried to read
before I met the Professor. But that was long
ago. I had but little idea how long, but it must

280 The Lunarian Professor

have been tedious for Allan during the long period
I was interviewing the Professor. I wondered how
he had occupied himself, and why he had not dis-
turbed the interview — though I was exceedingly
grateful that he had not. Perhaps he had seen
the Professor himself. I asked him.

''"What are you giving me?" said he, "I have
seen no professor."

''But he has only this moment left me, perhaps
he is still in sight," said I, "and I at once turned
an eager gaze toward the sky overhead and direct-
ly descried a small black speck. "There! what's
that — I believe that's the Professor."

"That," said Allan cooly, "is a crane, j'ou can
see it moving toward the east. It is going home
to Crane Island. "What's the matter, are you dream-
ing?"

I briefly explained.

"Well," said Allan, "you must have fallen in-
to a doze and got to dreaming. Don't give your-
self any worry about the way I have put in the
time, I have been very agreeably occupied! getting
this bucket of water."

"Do you mean to say," said I, "that all this in-
terview has taken only" —

"I mean to say that you have been sitting down
there on that bank holding that piece of stick with
the blurred keel marks on it, just long enough for
me to walk to that rock yonder dip up a bucket
of water and walk back. Here, time me with j^our
watch and I will show you how long it took."

W^hereupon he threw away the water in his
bucket, walked to the rock, refilled it and walked

The Return Voyage 281

back — in one minute and forty seconds ! Thus may
one get an idea of the quickness of thought. I
had heard of it before, but never realized it so
completely.

As we went on with our preparations for our
dinner I gave Allan some further accout of what
I seemed to have heard and seen, and he became
quite interested in it.

''I think," said he, ''you ought to write it down,
and do it at once before you forget it. You had
better go right back to your cottage at the other
end of the lake. I'll go with you, perhaps I can
help you. I can write while you dictate."

I thought myself, I ought to write it down,
and was pleased that he made the suggestion. It
was soon arranged. After dinner we piled our
things in the Sally Ann and were soon under way.
Instead of rowing back to the outlet of Halstead's
Bay, we steered for a narrow depression in the
long point of land that separates the Bay from
the upper lake. At this place which is only a few
yards wide, we made a portage by dragging the
boat over by main strength, and in a minute were
in the lake, and just in time to hail a little steamer
on its way down. They threw us a line which we
made fast to the Sally Ann, and were thus towed
back to Excelsior. Here Allan left me to go and
settle his board bill and get his things, with the
understanding that he would come over to my
cottage next morning, while the steamer pursued
her way toward the St. Louis hotel. Opposite
Cottagewood I threw off the line and in a few

282 The Lunarian Professor

minutes was back in my cottage. This terminated
the cruise of the Sally Ann.

That night I dreamed over the entire interview
with the Professor, I believe verbatim.

Next morning a messenger came with a note
from Allan saying that he had found awaiting him
a telegram from a favorite niece demanding his
presence at her wedding due to come off at S't.
Louis at a time that required his immediate de-
parture. This he considered imperative and he
had accordingly started the night before. He
would try and come back after the wedding was
over, he said.

I began to write up the ''interview" that day,
and that night I dreamed it all over again. It
seemed to be now well fixed in my mind and I
wrote rapidly. A week later I got another note
from Allan. Business had claimed him again and
he regretted that he would have to forego any
further outing till next season. I have never
heard from him since.

I wrote vigorously on the interview, and finish-
ed it in two weeks. I was very tired and glad to
get back to the city and to work so as to rest up
from the fatigues of my outing,

Appendix 283

APPENDIX.

See page 17, Mitchel Discovery.

The Reader will remember that the Professor
stated that the alternating gravity currents— the
secret of which the Lunarians so tightly gripped—
could be applied only to metals and has no effect
on organic substances. In order to get the use of
these currents for moving or controlling such
bodies, it must be acquired through the manipula-
tion of the metals. Thus if a piece of metal be
attached to a block of wood, according to the Pro-
fessor, the greater quantity of the metal will con-
trol the movement. If a box be constructed of
metal so as to hold non reversible materials of
course they will share the movement of the metal.

The following account of the discovery by Pro-
fessor Mitchell, taken from a paper of the period,
is suggestive of a connection between that and the
discovery by the Lunarians.

Sometime in the sixth decade of this century
(19th) a very remarkable discovery was said to
have been made by the celebrated astronomer. Prof.
0. M. Mitchel, then of Cincinnati, and director of
Dudley and Cincinnati Observatories. He discov-
ered either a new metal or an amalgam, alloy or
compound, which when formed into plates posses-
ed the property of preventing the passage through
it of the influence of gravitation. In short it

284: The Lunarian Professor

effectually stopped the passage of the lines of
force that constitute gravitation, so that if a cage
or box were made of such material any solid body
placed inside of it would lose its weight and not
tend to fall. If a man were to get inside of such
a box, he would find himself destitute of weight
toward the ground. But if he should open the
top of the box he would admit the influence of
gravity from that direction, coming from the
moon, planets or stars that might happen to be in
that direction at the moment and it would at
once commence to rise. Acting upon the obvious
suggestions enforced by such experiments the Pro-
fessor caused a cage to be built large enough to con-
tain 4 or 5 persons, and in order to secure secrecy
had it conveyed in pieces, together with all need-
ed apparatus and stores, to a solitary and obscure
circular hollow or depression in the valley of the
Mississippi not far from Natchez, and called the
Devil's Punch-bowl. Here the cage was put to-
gether and the numerous openings in the plates on
all sides covered by movable slilding lids of the
same material, were carefully closed and secured,
all the scientific apparatus, the provisions' flasks
of compressed air etc., were conveyed within, and
lastly the voyagers themselves. By opening the
ports in the direction of the moon they soon be-
gan to fall toward her. As they approached her,
by a judicious manipulation of the sliding doors
they were enabled to make a complete revolution
around her. They did not land, reserving that ad-
venture for another trip. On their return to earth
they steadied themselves in a position some miles

Appendix 285

up, and allowed the earth to revolve under them
until the Devils punch-bowl came directly beneath
them, when they dropped into it. They disman-
tled and secreted their machine intending to re-
turn. Shortly after this the Civil war came on,
during which Prof. Mitchel became a general in
the service and died at Beaufort, South Carolina,
October 30, 1862, and the secret of his discovery
as I suppose died with him.

p. s. : — Notice! If any of the companions of
Professor Mitchell on the above trip to the moon
are still living they would greatly oblige the
author by sending him their address.

Over Population.

See page 155.

Taking our stand in the future alongside of
the men and women that will then be pressing
their brains against the apparently insoluble prob-
lem of over-population, we will share their amaze-
ment at the insane panic that penetrated the
American people of the 19th century to give away
and on any terms to get rid of their magnificent
domain and have it pass into the control and own-
ership of any undesirable bipeds that would take
it as a gift. They acted as if they thought land
was an encumbrance and something that was im-
poverishing and ruining the nation. If they had
held out an exclusive welcome to the hardy and
liberty loving people of the north of Europe, the
stock that fought for liberty and independence in
the first place, it would have been at least more
rational. But under any conditions, why such a
panic to fill up the country with people? Carlyle

286 The Lunarian Professor

speaking of the prosperity of America 50 or 60
years ago said: "You may boast of your free in-
stitutions and your dimmoeracy and all that, but
America is prosperous, because you have a great
deal of land for a very few people,"

Hei was right.

As long as land was abundant or rather as long
as people were scarce, there was enough of the
necessaries of life to give a competence and '^cm-
fort to all. When the country is filled up there is
no longer the profusion that nature set out for us
at first. The land that we ought to have reserv-
ed for our children, educated in our ways and in-
heriting our ideas is given to foreigners, and our
own are disinherited. The miraculous insanity of
this, is that we view this prospect with more than
complacency and are anxious to help it along. We
not only crowd the country with immigrants, many
of whom we are obliged to class as objectionable,
but we encourage a double rate of increase by the
Apotheosis of the parents of large families, as if
fecundity were a merit or there were any danger
of **race suicide". The danger is greater that
nature out of patience with our colossal stupidity
will visit homicide on the whole race, just as she
has so often done on parts of it.

The danger the Professor sees ahead is no
dream. Neither is the final remedy he so con-
fidently proposes. Even now, are some of these
vital questions being solved, and along the Pro-
fessor's lines. We shall learn to begin our study of
sociology with the Bees and the Ants; older races
than we are, and in practical hard sense far ahead.

Appendix SSI'

Many people do not know that we have gone
to sleep directly over a weak spot in the Earth's
crust, that although it gives many warnings by
growlings and grumblings, it fails to wake us up.
AVe turn over and half awake, we mutter — it isn't
going to be much of a quake I guess. If some
crank does not succeed in sounding the alarm loud
enough and none but a crank will be likely to
sound it at all, the citizen peers out — "tis noth-
ing but that crank,'* he says, and he rolls over
as if he thought it better to be overwhelmed by
a quake than saved by a crank. So much the
worse if even the crank cannot save us.

The questions that we seem desirous to push
aside are the most persistent in pressing for solu-
tion. What is the aim of the aimless multitudes
that swarm to our shores? What do any of us
live for? To live? Is living worth it, if it can-
not be done in comfort? The old theological query
shows up — ''What is the chief end of man"? As
they answered; it was nothing at all to man and
of paltry insignificance to anybody else.

Worker Sex.

See page 182.

I inferred from a remark the Professor drop-
ped that he regarded the present human race as
gradually developing a third or worker sex from
those present, especially the female; and this with-
out any artificial effort. It is evident to the most
superficial observation that the women are push-
ing ahead into occupations that a few years ago
were monopolized by the men. The men, are

288 The Lunarian Professor

being dispossessed of their employments, and the
"women usurp their places. Women thus employed
and self supporting, cannot reasonably be ex-
pected to see anything very alluring in a mar-
riage that presents a prospect to the woman of
being obliged to support a husband and children
as well as herself. This condition of things will
certainly cause a decline in matrimony, has al-
ready done it in fact; amongst the women of the
greatest enterprise.

See page 199, Abolition of the Stomach.

The Professor's plan of the abortion or extinc-
tion of the digestive apparatus is in direct contin-
uance of evolution. There are many cases in nature
in w^hich a process or system is abandoned or
superseded by a different one, and new organs and
new functions may totally displace others. For
example the Amphibians are supplied with gills,
and are able to live continuously under water, but
they begin to live part of the time in the air, and
lungs are developed which at first begin to do part
of the office of aerating the blood of the animal,
and gradually assume the whole of the function,
the gills becoming atrophied and abolished.

The prognostication of the Professor in regard
to the metamorphosis of the digestive apparatus
is neither wild nor extravagant. The unborn in-
fant lives on food digested by its mother and in-
troduced into its system. After its birth the food
is digested and supplied by its own internal labor-
atory, instead of that of the mother. It might
just as well be supplied by a chemical laboratory.

Appendix 289

The only essential condition is that the food be
perfectly assimilable by the tissues and without
any surplus of substances not required. The
transfer of the food supply from the circulation
of the mother to its production by the chemist is
reached by several stages or changes. First it is
from the mothers circulation supported by ex-
terior supplies of food. Next it is furnished by
the circulation of the infant supported by exterior
supplies; commonly beginning with the natural
lacteal secretion, then after a time the demand
changes from this to stronger food; also to ac-
quired habits in taste the use of stimulants, narco-
tics etc. Thus nature changes the organism in
the most radical way to keep it in conformity with
conditions that are necessary for its support, and
likewise changes its environment to furnish the
conditions with which conformity is essential. If
we consider how great the changes are, in the
structure and functions of one body during the
living of one life; we cannot feel surprised at the
changes in human anatomy that we know to have
occurred in the long ages up which we have so
laboriously toiled, nor at the further changes
which the foresight of the Professor points out
to us, and for which he helps himself to such a
prodigal allowance of time. The changes we have
met and passed are far greater than those assum-
ed for the future. As to our evolution we are
certainly not yet half through.

See page 225, Notes on Mars.

The following notes of the conditions of Mars
and its tiny satellites are furnished by our mun-

390 The Lunlavian Professor

dane astronomers, and will give an idea of the
problems that demanded solution by the Lunarians
in their famous contract. Gravity on Mars is
four-tenths as much as on the Earth. The atmo-
spheric pressure is two and a quarter pounds per
square inch against 15 pounds on the Earth. The
climate of the poles is much milder than the same
regions of Earth, although there are heavy falls
of snow. In June and July 1892, 1,600,000 square
miles of snow melted oif in the southern zone of
Mars. April 9, 1890, 3,000,000 square miles of
snow fell. Ice is not formed anywhere except
close to the poles in winter time. The channels
are connected from sea to sea. They are 60 miles
wide and from 3,000 to 4,000 miles long in a
straight line. There are many of the channels that
are duplicates, the duplicate being parallel with
and 200 to 400 miles from the main channel. There
are from 7 to 20 of these duplicate channels. Most
of the surface of Mars is boggy syrtis, neither sea
nor good dry land. Clouds float 20 miles high —
4 times as high as on Earth.

The year of Mars is equal to 687 of our days.
His day is 24 hours and 37 minutes. His diame-
ter is about 4,500 miles; his distance from the
sun 145.000.000 of miles; his nearest position to
the Earth 35,000,000 miles.

The moon Phobos is 8 to 9 miles in diameter.
It is 3,760 miles from the surface of INIars, and re-
volves around him in 7 hours and 39 minutes, at
a rate of 79.6 per minute. It rises in the west
and sets in the east. Its orbit is .S6.486 miles. Dei-

Appendix 291

mos rises in the east and sets in the west, so to
Mars, does the Earth, Sun and Moon. The diame-
ter of Deimos 6 to 7 miles, distance from the sur-
face of Mars 12,500 miles and his revolution is
performed in 30 hours and 18 minutes, rate 50
miles a minute.

V

V

I